Intravascular Position-Sensitive Positron-Counting Catheter for Atherosclerotic Plaques

Authors

• Takehiro Nakahara
• Shinichiro Fujimoto
• Jagat Narula
• H William Strauss
• Navneet Narula
• Tohru Minamino
• Hiroyuki Daida
• Masahiro Jinzaki

Language

English

Publication Date

4-5-2026

Journal

EJNMMI Physics

DOI

10.1186/s40658-026-00861-9

PMID

41936017

PMCID

PMC13176407

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

4-5-2026

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Abstract

Purpose: Rupture prone high-risk atheromatous plaques are characterized by large necrotic core volumes covered by thin fibrous caps which are positively remodeled; these plaques are significantly inflamed by the cells of monocyte-macrophage origin. We propose that the development of a position-sensitive positron-counting catheter, adding directionality with lead shields (sCath), would help record quantitative location-specific uptake of specifically targeted radiotracers against inflammation.

Methods: For in-vitro study, the catheter was placed on 18F point sources to measure the radioactivity counts. For ex-vivo study, the 9 aortas dissected from the rabbit model of atherosclerosis were exposed, and catheters were pulled back every 1 cm and counts measured the for 1 min by non-shielded catheter (nsCath), sCath-R (right side) and sCath-L (left side).

Results: In-vitro study showed linear correlation between counts and 18F point source dose until at least 100 kBq (r = 0.98, p < 0.0001). In ex-vivo study, total 100 sections were obtained from 9 aortas and counts-per-minute (cpm) from each catheter nsCath, sCath-R, -L and the average of sCath-R and -L demonstrated high correlation coefficients with quantitative %ID/g (r = 0.49, 0.38, and 0.48, 0.48, respectively. p < 0.0001). They showed excellent agreement with ipsilateral macrophage numbers (sCath-R: r = 0.80, sCath-L: r = 0.73, p < 0.0001). Although the average macrophage numbers correlated with sCath-average of both sides (r = 0.80, p < 0.0001) and non-shielded Cath (nsCath) (r = 0.48, p < 0.0001), the positron count rate of sCath showed stronger correlation with ipsilateral macrohpage number.

Conclusion: The directional superiority of sCath should potentially be useful in ecentric plaques for inflammation localization, compared with circumferential inflammatory load by the use of nsCath.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40658-026-00861-9.

Keywords

High-risk plaques, Atheroma, Intravascular catheter, Radioisotope, Positron

Published Open-Access

yes

Recommended Citation

Nakahara, Takehiro; Fujimoto, Shinichiro; Narula, Jagat; et al., "Intravascular Position-Sensitive Positron-Counting Catheter for Atherosclerotic Plaques" (2026). Faculty, Staff and Student Publications. 4073.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/uthmed_docs/4073