18F-sodium fluoride (18F-NaF) positron emission tomography (PET) has emerged as a promising noninvasive imaging tool for the assessment of active calcification processes in coronary artery disease. 18F-NaF uptake colocalizes to high-risk and ruptured atherosclerotic plaques. Most recently, 18F-NaF coronary uptake was shown to be a robust and independent predictor of myocardial infarction in patients with advanced coronary artery disease. In this review, we provide an overview of the advances in coronary 18F-NaF imaging. In particular, we discuss the recently developed and validated motion correction techniques which address heart contractions, tidal breathing, and patient repositioning during the prolonged PET acquisitions. Additionally, we discuss a novel quantification approach-the coronary microcalcification activity (which has been inspired by the widely employed method in oncology total active tumor volume measurement). This new method provides a single number encompassing 18F-NaF activity within the entire coronary vasculature rather than just information regarding a single area of most intense tracer uptake.

中文翻译：

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18F-氟化钠冠状动脉成像定量分析的进展。

18F-氟化钠 (18F-NaF) 正电子发射断层扫描 (PET) 已成为评估冠状动脉疾病活动性钙化过程的有前途的无创成像工具。18F-NaF 摄取共定位于高风险和破裂的动脉粥样硬化斑块。最近，18F-NaF 冠状动脉摄取被证明是晚期冠状动脉疾病患者心肌梗死的可靠且独立的预测因子。在这篇综述中，我们概述了冠状动脉 18F-NaF 成像的进展。特别是，我们讨论了最近开发和验证的运动校正技术，这些技术解决了长时间 PET 采集期间的心脏收缩、潮汐呼吸和患者重新定位。此外，我们讨论了一种新的量化方法——冠状动脉微钙化活动（受到肿瘤学总活动肿瘤体积测量中广泛采用的方法的启发）。这种新方法提供了一个单一的数字，包括整个冠状血管系统内的 18F-NaF 活动，而不仅仅是有关示踪剂摄取最强烈的单个区域的信息。