Table 1. . Positron emission tomography radiotracers for coronary atherosclerosis.

Target	Ligand	Radiotracer	Application to date	Ongoing clinical trials	Ref.
Macrophage activation	GLUT (1 & 3) and conversion by hexokinase to 18F-FDG-6-phosphate	18F-FDG	Prospective in vivo studies in extracardiac atherosclerosis		[14,16,22]
			Myocardial suppression required to evaluate coronary arteries
	Somatostatin receptor subtype 2	68Ga-DOTATATE	Retrospective in vivo studies in coronary artery disease	VISION study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02021188)	[54,55]
	Translocator protein 18-kDa	11C-PK11195	Prospective in vivo study in carotid stenosis		[56]
	Translocator protein 18-kDa	11C-PBR28	Clinical studies in healthy controls and multiple sclerosis	Cardiac Sarcoidosis (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02017522)	[57,58]
	Mannose receptor	18F-FDM	Preclinical cell culture model		[59]
	Choline kinase phosphorylated to phosphatidylcholine	18F-choline	Preclinical murine model	PARISK study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01899014)	[60]
Apoptosis	Phosphatidylserine	68Ga-annexin A5	Preclinical murine model		[61]
Hypoxia	Reduction to amine derivative in low O2 environment	18F-FMISO	Preclinical murine model		[62]
	Reduction to amine derivative in low O2 environment	18F-HX4	Proof of concept in carotid atherosclerosis		[63]
Microcalcification	Hydroxyapatite	18F-fluoride	Prospective in vivo studies in coronary and extracardiac atherosclerosis	DIAMOND study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02110303)	[23,24]
				PRE 18FFIR study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02278211)
Angiogenesis	αVβ3 and αVβ5 integrin	18F-fluciclatide	Proof of concept in aortic atherosclerosis	Angiogenesis and Fibrosis in Myocardial Infarction (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01813045) and Aortic Stenosis (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01837160)	[64]
	αVβ3 integrin	18F-RGD-K5	Ex vivo human carotid studies	Carotid Plaque Imaging Study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01968226)	[65]

FDG: Fluorodeoxyglucose; FMISO: Fluoromisonadazole; RGD: Arginine–glycine–aspartate.

Data taken with permission from [66].