Objectives:
Elevated blood pressure from cocaine can increase left ventricular (LV) metabolic activity, leading to structural changes such as hypertrophy. We aimed to assess the association between blood pressure and LV myocardial uptake of FDG, hypothesizing that HIV individuals with raised blood pressure will have higher FDG uptake.
Methods:
University of Pennsylvania enrolled patients with HIV on antiretroviral therapy with viral load <200 copy/ml. Cocaine usage in moderate to high amounts (cocaine disease score≥5) was subsequently documented. Full body PET scans were acquired 120 minutes post-injection of 18F-FDG(15 mCi) with low-dose CT scans for attenuation correction. Patients with imaging artifacts were excluded from the analysis. Regions of interest were drawn on axial slices using computer software (OsirixMD, v9.0.02) around LV myocardium. Average standard uptake value means (aSUVmean) were calculated for each patient. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were obtained prior to imaging; mean arterial pressure (MAP) was subsequently calculated. Linear regressions and Mann-Whitney U tests were employed for statistical analysis.
Results:
aSUVmean was higher in HIV patients with cocaine use (U(Ncocaine = 11, Nno cocaine=11) = 93, p=0.0336). In patients with cocaine use, there was a positive correlation between blood pressure and aSUVmean (SBP: r=0.70, p=0.0164; DBP: r=0.69, p=0.0185; MAP: r=0.72, p=0.0120). No significant correlations were found in HIV patients without cocaine use (SBP: r=0.03, p=0.9239; DBP: r=-0.50, p=0.1153; MAP: r=-0.32, p=0.3345).
Conclusions:
LV myocardial metabolism was more strongly positively correlated with blood pressure in HIV patients using cocaine compared to HIV patients without cocaine. These data suggest FDG-PET/CT can be used to monitor LV metabolic activity and allow for timely assessment of structural changes caused by cocaine use and hypertension.