Turk Kardiyol Dern Ars. 2018; 46(1): 66-68 | DOI: 10.5543/tkda.2017.68246

Endarteritis of coarctation of the aorta diagnosed with PET-CT

Ümit Yaşar Sinan¹, Burcu Dirlik Serim², Rukiye Yıldırım¹, Özge Çetinarslan¹, Mehmet Serdar Küçükoğlu^1
1Department of Cardiology, İstanbul University Institute of Cardiology, İstanbul, Turkey
²Department of Nuclear Medicine and Imaging, İstanbul University Institute of Cardiology, İstanbul, Turkey

Infective endocarditis (IE) is an infectious disease that affects the endothelium of the large intrathoracic vessels, heart valves, and intra-cardiac foreign body material. A 20-year-old woman was admitted to the cardiology department with complaints of fever and palpitations. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a bicuspid aortic valve, aortic root enlargement, and aortic coarctation. Transesophageal echocardiography revealed a bicuspid aortic valve, but there was no vegetation. Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus was identified on a blood culture. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography (18F-FDG PET-CT) revealed increased intensive glucose uptake on the dilated aortic segment adjacent to the distal coarctation zone. Several reports have shown promising results for radio-labelled white blood cell single-photon emission computed tomography and 18F-FDG PET-CT imaging in IE. To our knowledge, this is the first described case in which PET-CT revealed endarteritis of the descending aorta in a patient without prosthetic material.

Keywords: Aortic coarctation, aortitis; bacterial endocarditis; cardiac imaging; congenital heart disease; endarteritis; positron emission tomography-computed tomography.

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