Another potential step to improve prosthetic heart valve endocarditis imaging with 18F-FDG PET/CT

Multimodality cardiovascular imaging in the diagnosis and management of prosthetic valve infective endocarditis in children report of two cases and brief review of the literature

“…Examples of situations that can lead to false-positive results include early post-operative inflammation around the sewing ring of prosthetic valves and unsuccessful suppression of myocardial FDG uptake even in cases of optimal pre-imaging preparation. 13 Mild to moderate amount of FDG uptake around a prosthetic heart valve can also be a normal finding, likely owing to foreign body reaction. 13 False-negative findings may be related to the effects of antibiotic therapy.…”

“…13 Mild to moderate amount of FDG uptake around a prosthetic heart valve can also be a normal finding, likely owing to foreign body reaction. 13 False-negative findings may be related to the effects of antibiotic therapy. 13 Therefore, the specificity of 18 FDG-PET/CT may be limited in the first 2 months after surgical implantation.…”

“…13 False-negative findings may be related to the effects of antibiotic therapy. 13 Therefore, the specificity of 18 FDG-PET/CT may be limited in the first 2 months after surgical implantation. 13 Considering the low incidence of paediatric infective endocarditis as compared to adults, it is not likely that a prospective clinical trial will be completed soon.…”

“…13 Therefore, the specificity of 18 FDG-PET/CT may be limited in the first 2 months after surgical implantation. 13 Considering the low incidence of paediatric infective endocarditis as compared to adults, it is not likely that a prospective clinical trial will be completed soon. Until such data are available, it is important to gather information on the ability of these studies to identify features of infective endocarditis in children, particularly in those patients with implanted prosthetic materials such as valves and conduits.…”