Utility of serum ketone levels for assessment of myocardial glucose suppression for 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET in patients referred for evaluation of endocarditis

Background. F-18-FDG PET/CT is used to diagnose cardiac sarcoidosis and endocarditis. It requires myocardial glucose utilization (MGU) suppression to avoid false positives, which occur in up to 20% of patients. Serum beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) levels may help identify incomplete suppression of MGU. We determined the optimal timing and diagnostic thresholds to identify incomplete suppression of MGU. Methods and results. We retrospectively identified 114 patients referred for F-18-FDG PET/CT for endocarditis, wherein myocardial uptake outside of paravalvular regions is not related to pathology and can be confidently ascribed as being due to inadequate suppression of MGU. Patients followed a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet and received heparin. Serum BHB, insulin, glucose and hemoglobin A1c were measured. Maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of left ventricle (LV) and mean SUV (SUVmean) in LV blood pool (LVBP) was measured. Logistic regression and area under the receiver-operating characteristic analyses were used to quantify the relationship between biomarkers and MGU suppression. A threshold of BHB >= 0.35 mmol center dot L-1 to detect suppression resulted in sensitivity of 88% and specificity of 61%. A threshold of BHB >= 0.95 mmol center dot L-1 resulted in sensitivity of 45% and specificity of 100%. AUC was 0.87. BHB measured similar to 4 hours prior to F-18-FDG injection performed similarly to or better than later timepoints. Conclusions. Serum BHB levels are useful for assessing suppression of MGU and could simplify interpretation of F-18-FDG PET/CT inflammation studies.