Nearly 80 million Americans have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease and the slow buildup of fats, cholesterol and other substances forming plaque on the inner lining of arteries. This causes atherosclerosis that can lead to heart disease by narrowing the heart's arteries, allowing less blood to flow to the heart muscle. This can cause angina, and plaques that rupture may bring on a sudden heart attack, stroke or death.

But one key to stopping and perhaps even preventing heart attacks may be to combine imaging technologies, according to research reported at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM). James H. Rudd, a cardiologist and scientist with the Imaging Sciences Laboratory at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, reported that "for the first time, we have shown that we can detect dangerous, high-risk plaque that causes heart attacks and strokes through the use of multidetector computed tomography (CT) imaging and a novel contrast agent."

Researchers combined CT imaging with positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, "providing a new way to determine the amount of inflammation within atherosclerotic plaque and the changes of plaque causing a future heart attack or stroke," Rudd noted. "Using both imaging techniques together -- an excellent example of multimodality molecular imaging -- gave more information than using them separately," explained Rudd. "Each technique tells us something different about atherosclerosis."
With CT imaging and N1177 (a nanoparticulate contrast agent used to improve the effectiveness of CT provided by NanoScan Imaging LLC), researchers "were able to determine the size of plaque, whether it was causing narrowing of the arteries and whether any inflammatory cells were involved," said Rudd.

"From the PET scan, we got extra information about whether the plaques were dangerous and whether they could lead to problems for patients," added Rudd. He continued by saying that the combined imaging techniques focused "not only on the structure of plaque but also on the underlying molecular biology of the disease in the hope of guiding and monitoring future therapies."

PET is a highly specialized, noninvasive imaging technique that uses short-lived radioactive substances to produce three-dimensional color images of those substances functioning within the body. Unlike CT, which provides anatomic images, PET scanning provides information about the body's chemistry, metabolic activity and function not available through other procedures.

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