18 F-FDG-PET in Finnish patients with clinical suspicion of cardiac sarcoidosis: Female sex and history of atrioventricular block increase the prevalence of positive PET findings.

INTRODUCTION: Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) is a non-invasive imaging modality that has been shown to be a feasible method to demonstrate myocardial inflammation. The aim of this study was to identify the patients suspected of having cardiac sarcoidosis (CS), who are most likely to benefit from PET imaging.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: 137 patients suspected of having CS underwent a dedicated cardiac FDG-PET examination at Tampere University Hospital between August 2012 and September 2015. These examinations were retrospectively analyzed.

RESULTS: 33 and 12 of the 137 patients had abnormal left and right ventricular (LV and RV) FDG-uptake, respectively. Abnormal LV-uptake and RV-uptake were significantly associated with female sex and a history of advanced AV-block (P < 0.05). Abnormal RV-uptake was also associated with ventricular tachycardia and atrial fibrillation (P < 0.05). 56% of the 27 female patients with a history of AV-block had a pathological PET finding compared to only 6% of the 49 male patients without a history of AV-block. There were 17 female patients with history of both AV-block and ventricular tachycardia, 71% of them had abnormal PET finding.

CONCLUSIONS: Abnormal FDG-PET findings were associated with female sex, AV-block, and arrhythmias in this clinical cohort.