Dynamic Tracking During Intracoronary Injection of 18F-FDG-Labeled Progenitor Cell Therapy for Acute

We assessed the feasibility of dynamic 3-dimensional (3D) PET/ CT tracking of 18F-FDG-labeled circulating progenitor cell (CPC) therapy during intracoronary injection, using a porcine model of acute myocardial infarction (MI). Methods: Human and porcine CPC were radiolabeled with 18F-FDG, with variation in tempera-ture and incubation time to determine optimal conditions. For in vivo experiments, CPC were harvested before induction of infarc-tion (using 90-min coronary balloon occlusion). At 48 h, animals underwent cardiac MRI to assess infarct size. A balloon catheter was placed in the infarct artery at the same location as that used for induction of MI, and during dynamic 3D PET/CT 3 · 107 autologous 18F-FDG progenitor cells were injected through the central lumen using either (a) 3 cycles of balloon occlusion and reperfusion or (b) high-concentration, single-bolus injection with-out balloon occlusion (n 5 3 for both protocols). Peripheral bloo