European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging
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Eur. J. Nucl. Med. Mol. Imaging · May 2021
Vasculitis changes in COVID-19 survivors with persistent symptoms: an [18F]FDG-PET/CT study.
Several patients experience unexplained persistent symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 recovering. We aimed at evaluating if 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose ([18F]FDG) was able to demonstrate a persistent inflammatory process. ⋯ Although the total vascular score was similar in the two groups, the target-to-blood pool ratio was significantly higher in three vascular regions (thoracic aorta, right iliac artery, and femoral arteries) in the recovered COVID-19 cohort than in controls, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 induces vascular inflammation, which may be responsible for persisting symptoms.