Radionuclide Imaging of Infective Endocarditis

Abstract

Infective endocarditis (IE) is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Early diagnosis is crucial for adequate patient management. Due to difficulties in the diagnosis, a multidisciplinary discussion in addition to the integration of clinical signs, microbiology data, and imaging data is used. Imaging, including echocardiography, molecular imaging techniques, and coronary CT angiography (CTA) is central to detect infections involving heart valves and implanted cardiovascular devices, also allowing for early detection of septic emboli and metastatic. This article describes the main clinical application of white blood cell SPECT/CT and [¹⁸F]FDG-PET/CT and CTA in IE and infections associated with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices.

Keywords: Duke/ESC criteria; Echocardiography; Infections associated with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices (CIED); Infectious endocarditis (IE); Labeled leukocyte (WBC) imaging; PET/CT imaging; SPECT/CT imaging; diagnosis.