Excessive aortic inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients exhibit increased cardiovascular risk, even after controlling for smoking. Inflammation may underlie this observation. Methods: We measured vascular inflammation in both COPD patients and controls using ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT. Aortic inflammation was expressed as the target-to-background ratio (TBR) of the standardized uptake value in 7 COPD patients, 5 metabolic syndrome patients, and 7 ex-smokers. Results: Abdominal aortic mean TBR (±SD) was greater in COPD patients than in ex-smoker controls (1.60 ± 0.13 vs. 1.34 ± 0.15, P = 0.0001). Aortic arch and abdominal aorta mean TBRs were higher in metabolic syndrome patients than in COPD patients (aortic arch, 1.80 ± 0.18 vs. 1.53 ± 0.18, P = 0.001, and abdominal aorta, 1.71 ± 0.14 vs. 1.60 ± 0.13, P = 0.001). Conclusion: COPD patients exhibited aortic inflammation that fell between the aortic inflammation exhibited by ex-smokers and that by metabolic syndrome patients. This may in part explain the increased risk of cardiovascular disease in COPD patients. COPYRIGHT