Researchers at Yale University are developing a new SPECT/CT tracer that could potentially assess a patient's risk for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) rupture, according to a study in the August issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
Yale researchers have created a water-soluble matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) inhibitor that forms the basis for the new tracer, RYM1, which is labeled with technetium-99m (Tc-99m). MMPs play a key role in the development of AAAs, which account for 10,000 to 15,000 deaths annually in the U.S. -- most prevalently in older men with a history of smoking.
In a preclinical evaluation, researchers compared RYM1 and Tc-99m with another MMP tracer in mouse models of aneurysms (JNM, August 2017, Vol. 58:8, pp. 1318-1323). The results showed RYM1 imaged vessel wall biology with high sensitivity and specificity, and aortic tracer uptake in vivo correlated with vessel-wall inflammation, according to Dr. Mehran Sadeghi of the Yale Cardiovascular Research Center in New Haven and the West Haven Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Haven, CT.
Currently, there is no effective medical therapy for AAA; guidelines recommend invasive repair of large AAA, but morbidity and mortality remain high. Thus, these findings demonstrate the SPECT/CT tracer is a promising tool to evaluate and manage AAAs, the authors noted in a statement.
