Table 2.

Sodium [¹⁸F]fluoride uptake and activity in the aorta and blood pool in each positron emission tomography reconstruction

PET reconstruction	Total aortic SUV	Aortic SUVmean	Aortic SUVmax	AMA	Blood pool
PET-CT	82.7 ± 27.5	0.92 ± 0.19	1.98 ± 0.68	1.25 ± 0.17	0.75 ± 0.16
Dixon PET-MRI	77.1 ± 25.1	0.91 ± 0.17	2.54 ± 0.87**	1.35 ± 0.25	0.69 ± 0.12*
RadialVIBE-4 PET-MRI	79.4 ± 26.8	0.95 ± 0.19	2.25 ± 0.77***	1.27 ± 0.03	0.75 ± 0.14
RadialVIBE-2 PET-MRI	75.2 ± 26.1	0.88 ± 0.16	1.86 ± 0.66	1.28 ± 0.18	0.69 ± 0.11*

Aortic microcalcification activity (AMA) is calculated by dividing the total aortic SUV by its volume, then dividing by the mean blood pool

Results are presented as mean ± standard deviation. There was no difference in average total aortic SUV, aortic SUV or AMA amongst modalities. RadialVIBE-4 had higher average blood pool activity than Dixon and RadialVIBE-2. Aortic SUVmax was significantly higher in Dixon and RadialVIBE-4 compared to RadialVIBE-2.

Statistical comparisons highlighted are of differences observed in SUVmax (compared to RadialVIBE-2) and blood pool (compared to RadialVIBE-4). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001

PET-CT = positron emission tomography – computed tomography, PET-MR = positron emission tomography – magnetic resonance, SUVmax = maximum standardised uptake value, SUVmean = mean standardised uptake value, AMA = aortic microcalcification activity, total aortic SUV = total aortic standardised uptake value