Whole-vessel coronary 18F-sodium fluoride PET for assessment of the global coronary microcalcification burden

Purpose 18F-sodium fluoride (18F-NaF) has shown promise in assessing disease activity in coronary arteries, but currently used measures of activity – such as maximum target to background ratio (TBRmax) – are defined by single pixel count values. We aimed to develop a novel coronary-specific measure of 18F-NaF PET reflecting activity throughout the entire coronary vasculature (coronary microcalcification activity [CMA]).