Lymphoma Severity and Type Are Associated With Aortic FDG Uptake by 18F-FDG PET/CT Imaging

BACKGROUND There is evidence that metabolic disease burden in lymphoma influences patient outcome. However, the impact of disease severity on the cardiovascular system is unknown.OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to examine whether lymphoma is associated with arterial inflammation by investigating the relationship between disease metabolic burden and arterial fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake.METHODS Sixty-two chemotherapy-naive patients with active Hodgkin's or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were matched (2:1) to individual control groups of lymphoma patients previously treated and free of active disease. All groups underwent F-18-FDG position emission tomography-computed tomography imaging. Disease severity was quantified by metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis corresponding to standardized uptake values (SUVs) >= 41% or >= 2.5 of the maximum SUV within lymphoma regions, and aortic FDG uptake was quantified through the target-tobackground ratio (TBR). Inflammatory and disease severity biomarkers were also measured.RESULTS MTV and total lesion glycolysis measurements were significantly correlated with inflammatory and disease biomarkers. Aortic TBR was higher in patients with active non-Hodgkin's lymphoma compared with control subjects (median difference 0.51; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.28 to 0.78; p < 0.001). Similarly, patients with active Hodgkin's lymphoma had higher values of aortic TBR compared with control subjects (median difference 0.31; 95% CI: 0.15 to 0.49; p < 0.001). In addition, aortic TBR was modestly increased in patients with stage III to IV disease compared with those with stage I to II disease (median aortic TBR: 2.23 [interquartile range: 2.01 to 2.54] vs. 2.06 [interquartile range: 1.83 to 2.27; p = 0.050). In multivariable analysis, aortic FDG uptake and MTV >= 2.5 values were independently associated (beta = 0.425; 95% CI: 0.189 to 0.662; p = 0.001; R-2 = 0.208), as were aortic FDG uptake and MTV >= 41% (b = 0.407; 95% CI: 0.167 to 0.649, p = 0.001; R-2 = 0.191).CONCLUSIONS Aortic wall FDG uptake is related with disease severity indicative of a possible vascular effect of lymphoma. This work highlights a new potential role of molecular imaging in cardio-oncology for evaluating disease severity and its consequences on the vasculature. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier on behalf of the American College of Cardiology Foundation.