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?:abstract
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PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The clinical and incremental value of functional imaging with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG PET/CT) for the diagnosis and management of patients with suspected native and prosthetic valve infective endocarditis (IE). RECENT FINDINGS: The diagnosis of IE is challenging because of the highly variable clinical presentations, especially in the case of prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE). FDG PET/CT has been shown to play an important role for the diagnosis of PVE as a major Duke criterion. Whether FDG PET/CT could play a similar role in patients with suspected native valve endocarditis (NVE) is less well established. It is increasingly recognized that IE is a multisystem disorder, and identification of extra-cardiac manifestations on whole-body FDG PET/CT impacts management and prognosis of patients with IE. Finally, FDG PET/CT provides incremental prognostic value over other clinical and para-clinical parameters, enabling prediction of in-hospital mortality, IE recurrence, hospitalization, and new onset heart failure and embolic events. FDG PET/CT plays a key role in the investigation of patients with suspected IE, enabling detection of valvular infection and extra-cardiac manifestations of the infection which has important prognostic implications.
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