PET tracer can help fight heart attacks earlier in the process – Health Imaging

That animal cohort underwent a procedure to permanently close off a specific portion of the coronary artery, called ligation, while another four rats were imaged with the same radiotracer, but did not undergo the surgery. PET imaging was completed at various time intervals up to 30 days after heart attack. The researchers also performed 18-F-FDG imaging three days post-heart attack in both groups.

Results showed that the uptake of 68Ga-FAPI-04 PET peaked six days after ligation, offering a precise time window clinicians can pinpoint to intervene before cardiac fibrosis sets in and leads to more long-term effects.

While preclinical development of potential anti-fibrotic approaches is far advanced, there has been little clinical validation due to the lack of sensitive and specific imaging technologies for assessing cardiac fibrosis progression or regression, Varasteh said. In this regard, 68Ga-FAPI-04 PET has emerged as an important tool for the detection of fibrotic processes in the efforts to improve heart failure therapy.

In the future, and after further testing, Varasteh said that these advances may be used in other fibroblast-related conditions, such as hypertension, ischemic, dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies.

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PET tracer can help fight heart attacks earlier in the process - Health Imaging