The cardiosplenic axis: another obscure pathophysiological function of the spleen and its investigation using molecular imaging.

The cardiosplenic axis: another obscure pathophysiological function of the spleen and its investigation using molecular imaging.

Nucl Med Commun. 2016 Dec 22;:

Authors: Dunford A, Keramida G, Anagnostopoulos CD, Michael Peters A

Abstract
Splenic pathophysiology has been relatively unstudied, but recently, the spleen has received more attention as a result of the discovery of the 'cardiosplenic axis'. This term describes a role that the spleen plays in the progression of atherosclerosis following acute myocardial infarction. Human studies of this axis have largely used fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG) PET/CT to quantify peri-infarction inflammation, arterial wall inflammation and splenic metabolic activity. Most of these studies have quantified arterial wall inflammation and splenic metabolic activity using the standardized uptake value, but this is a semiquantitative measurement with several drawbacks, including overestimation of metabolic activity in overweight individuals and a dependence on blood glucose levels. A better approach to the measurement of metabolic activity using F-FDG is to measure tissue F-FDG clearance from dynamic imaging and Patlak-Rutland graphical analysis. This is the preferred approach for future human studies of the cardiosplenic axis that will be required to better define the nature of the spleen's role.

PMID: 28009777 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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