Background: Arterial and systemic inflammation are associated with increased arterial stiffness in several patient groups. Visceral fat has been shown to contain inflammatory cells and is associated with increased cardiovascular risk. In this study we sought to investigate whether the degree of arterial and visceral fat inflammation correlated with arterial stiffness.

Methods: 46 patients with a history of atherosclerotic disease were imaged using fluoro-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) with CT co-registration. Uptake of FDG, directly reflects metabolic activity and is shown to correlate with macrophage activity. Tracer uptake was analysed in various arterial segments and visceral fat by measuring maximum standard uptake values (SUV). Arterial stiffness was determined by pulse wave velocity (PWV) using the Sphygmacor™ system. Pulse wave analysis was used to determine central blood pressure.

Results: There was no correlation between aortic PWV and ascending aortic SUV (r=0.003, p=0.99). Aortic PWV also did not correlate with visceral fat SUV (r=0.09, p=0.57) or abdominal aortic SUV (r=0.058, p=0.844). These values remained unchanged with arterial SUV blood correction. There was also no correlation between central blood pressure and aortic inflammation (r=0.07, p=0.64).

Conclusions: There was no relationship between FDG uptake, a surrogate of inflammation, in the aorta and within visceral fat, and aortic pulse wave velocity in patients with known cardiovascular disease.