Using 18-Fluoro-2-Deoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography in Detecting Infectious Endocarditis/Endoarteritis: A Preliminary Report

Rationale and Objectives. We evaluated the effectiveness of positron emission tomography (PET) with 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) in the detection of infectious endocarditis/endoarteritis. Materials and Methods. For this study, we recruited 6 patients (4 women, 2 men; age range, 35 - 78 years; mean age, 55.8 ± 16.8 years) who were clinically diagnosed as having infective endocarditis/endoarteritis by their echocardiographic findings and by Duke criteria. Results. For all 6 patients, we also found increased FDG uptakes in the corresponding areas detected in echocardiography. Conclusion. FDG-PET appears to be a promising tool in diagnosing infective endocarditis/endoarteritis, and further prospective studies on a large scale to fully exploit the usefulness of FDG-PET for infective endocarditis/ endoarteritis are needed.