Diana Prieto Peña1, Isabel Martínez-Rodríguez2, Belén Atienza-Mateo1, Mónica Calderón-Goercke1, Ignacio Banzo2, M Carmen González-Vela3, Santos Castañeda4, Javier Llorca5, Miguel Á González-Gay6, Ricardo Blanco7. 1. Epidemiology, Genetics and Atherosclerosis Research Group on Systemic Inflammatory Diseases, Rheumatology Division, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, IDIVAL, Santander, Spain. 2. Nuclear Medicine Division, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, Molecular Imaging Group IDIVAL, Santander, and University of Cantabria, School of Medicine, Santander, Spain. 3. Pathology Division, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, IDIVAL, Santander, Spain. 4. Rheumatology Division, Hospital Universitario La Princesa, Madrid, Spain. 5. University of Cantabria, School of Medicine, Santander, Spain. 6. Epidemiology, Genetics and Atherosclerosis Research Group on Systemic Inflammatory Diseases, Rheumatology Division, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, IDIVAL, Santander; University of Cantabria, School of Medicine, Santander; and Cardiovascular Pathophysiology and Genomics Research Unit, School of Physiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. miguelaggay@hotmail.com. 7. Epidemiology, Genetics and Atherosclerosis Research Group on Systemic Inflammatory Diseases, Rheumatology Division, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, IDIVAL, Santander, Spain. rblanco@humv.es.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Clinical improvement following tocilizumab (TCZ) therapy in patients with large-vessel (LVV) giant cell arteritis (GCA) is well established. However, information on TCZ effect on imaging vascular activity is limited. We aimed to determine if clinical improvement correlated with reduction of vascular 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) uptake in positron emission tomography (PET/CT) scans. METHODS: Observational study of patients with refractory LVV-GCA treated with TCZ who had a baseline and a follow-up 18F-FDG-PET/CT scan. For the visual analysis of 18F-FDG vascular uptake, a total vascular score (TVS) was defined, ranging from 0 to 15. Besides, a semiquantitative analysis was performed as a target to background ratio (TBR)= SUVmax thoracic aorta wall/SUVmax aortic vascular pool. The baseline and follow-up TVS and TBR were compared. Clinical and lab¬oratory outcomes were also assessed. RESULTS: We included 30 patients (24 women/6 men); mean age± standard deviation 65.7± 9.8 years. Baseline PET/CT scans were performed due to active disease at a median [interquartile range-IQR] of 1.5 [0.0-4.0] months before TCZ onset. Following TCZ therapy, 25 (83.33%) patients achieved clinical remission and reduction of 18F-FDG vascular uptake was also observed after a mean ± standard deviation of 10.8±3.7 months. TBR decreased from 1.70 ± 0.52 to 1.48 ± 0.25 (p=0.005) and TVS from 4.97±2.62 to 3.13±1.89 (p< 0.001). However, only 9 (30.0%) patients showed complete normalisation of TBR and only 3 (10%) normalisation of TVS. TBR and TVS showed a good correlation (r=0.576). CONCLUSIONS: Although most of LVV-GCA patients achieve clinical remission after TCZ therapy, less than one-third show normalisation of 18F-FDG vascular uptake.
OBJECTIVES: Clinical improvement following tocilizumab (TCZ) therapy in patients with large-vessel (LVV) giant cell arteritis (GCA) is well established. However, information on TCZ effect on imaging vascular activity is limited. We aimed to determine if clinical improvement correlated with reduction of vascular 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) uptake in positron emission tomography (PET/CT) scans. METHODS: Observational study of patients with refractory LVV-GCA treated with TCZ who had a baseline and a follow-up 18F-FDG-PET/CT scan. For the visual analysis of 18F-FDG vascular uptake, a total vascular score (TVS) was defined, ranging from 0 to 15. Besides, a semiquantitative analysis was performed as a target to background ratio (TBR)= SUVmax thoracic aorta wall/SUVmax aortic vascular pool. The baseline and follow-up TVS and TBR were compared. Clinical and lab¬oratory outcomes were also assessed. RESULTS: We included 30 patients (24 women/6 men); mean age± standard deviation 65.7± 9.8 years. Baseline PET/CT scans were performed due to active disease at a median [interquartile range-IQR] of 1.5 [0.0-4.0] months before TCZ onset. Following TCZ therapy, 25 (83.33%) patients achieved clinical remission and reduction of 18F-FDG vascular uptake was also observed after a mean ± standard deviation of 10.8±3.7 months. TBR decreased from 1.70 ± 0.52 to 1.48 ± 0.25 (p=0.005) and TVS from 4.97±2.62 to 3.13±1.89 (p< 0.001). However, only 9 (30.0%) patients showed complete normalisation of TBR and only 3 (10%) normalisation of TVS. TBR and TVS showed a good correlation (r=0.576). CONCLUSIONS: Although most of LVV-GCA patients achieve clinical remission after TCZ therapy, less than one-third show normalisation of 18F-FDG vascular uptake.
Authors: Diana Prieto-Peña; Pilar Bernabeu; Paloma Vela; Javier Narváez; Jesús C Fernández-López; Mercedes Freire-González; Beatriz González-Álvarez; Roser Solans-Laqué; José L Callejas Rubio; Norberto Ortego; Carlos Fernández-Díaz; Esteban Rubio; Salvador García-Morillo; Mauricio Minguez; Cristina Fernández-Carballido; Eugenio de Miguel; Sheila Melchor; Eva Salgado; Beatriz Bravo; Susana Romero-Yuste; Juan Salvatierra; Cristina Hidalgo; Sara Manrique; Carlos Romero-Gómez; Patricia Moya; Noelia Álvarez-Rivas; Javier Mendizabal; Francisco Ortiz-Sanjuán; Iván Pérez de Pedro; José L Alonso-Valdivielso; Laura Perez-Sanchez; Rosa Roldán; Nagore Fernandez-Llanio; Ricardo Gómez de la Torre; Silvia Suarez; María Jesús Montesa Cabrera; Mónica Delgado Sánchez; Javier Loricera; Belén Atienza-Mateo; Santos Castañeda; Miguel A González-Gay; Ricardo Blanco Journal: Ther Adv Musculoskelet Dis Date: 2021-06-18 Impact factor: 5.346