Fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) of carotid arteries and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD): An analytical cross-sectional study from a teaching hospital, Kerala, South India

Introduction: Evidence related to carotid artery F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG -PET) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is limited from a low-resource setting. The present study aims to examine the association between FDG-PET uptakes by the carotid arteries in patients having different grades of NAFLD.

Materials and methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was done in a tertiary care center in South India for 1 year. Sonographically confirmed NAFLD patients of the age group 18 years and above were consecutively enrolled for the study after getting informed consent. Anthropometric measurements, ultrasonography for identifying the grades of fatty liver and FDG-PET were performed in the study participants. The data for the study were collected by the research personnel and entered in Microsoft Excel. The data were analyzed in the IBM SPSS version 20.0 software.

Results: A total of 24 patients were in the final analysis. The mean age of patients in this study was 56.79 (11.26) years. Among the 24 patients, 95.83% (n = 23) were males. The mean FDG-PET uptake in the carotids was 1.75 (0.42) units. The FDG uptake was higher in the moderate NAFLD group (1.46 [0.40] v/s 2.04 [0.14]) and the difference was statistically significant with P < 0.001. The FDG uptake between the coronary artery disease (CAD) with NAFLD and non CAD with NAFLD groups was not statistically significant (1.60 [0.46] v/s 1.86 [0.36], P = 0.17). The FDG uptake in CAD patients with mild and moderate NAFLD had no statistical significance between the two groups (1.43 [0.45] v/s 2.00 [0.00], P= 0.06).

Conclusion: The findings of this study showed increased uptake of FDG-PET in carotids in subjects with moderate fatty liver when compared with those with mild fatty liver.