{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,14]],"date-time":"2026-02-14T21:19:02Z","timestamp":1771103942544,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"22","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,8]],"date-time":"2024-11-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1731024000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"George and Victoria Karelias Foundation","award":["10209"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["10209"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cells"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is an autoimmune\/autoinflammatory disease affecting large vessels in patients over 50 years old. The disease presents as an acute inflammatory response with two phenotypes, cranial GCA and large-vessel vasculitis (LV)-GCA, involving the thoracic aorta and its branches. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography\/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET-CT) is among the imaging techniques contributing to diagnosing patients with systemic disease. However, its association with soluble inflammatory markers is still elusive. This proof-of-concept study aims to identify novel soluble serum biomarkers in PET\/CT-positive patients with LV-GCA and associate them with active (0 months) and inactive disease (6 months following treatment), in sequential samples. The most-diseased-segment target-to-background ratio (TBRMDS) was calculated for 13 LV-GCA patients, while 14 cranial GCA and 14 Polymyalgia Rheumatica patients with negative initial PET\/CT scans served as disease controls. Serum macrophage-related cytokines were evaluated by cytometric bead array (CBA). Finally, previously published NMR\/metabolomics data acquired from the same blood sampling were analyzed along with PET\/CT findings. TBRMDS was significantly increased in active versus inactive disease (3.32 vs. 2.65, p = 0.006). The analysis identified nine serum metabolites as more sensitive to change from the active to inactive state. Among them, choline levels were exclusively altered in the LV-GCA group but not in the disease controls. Cytokine levels were not associated with PET\/CT activity. Combining CRP, ESR, and TBRMDS with choline levels, a composite index was generated to distinguish active and inactive LV-GCA (20.4 vs. 11.62, p = 0.001). These preliminary results could pave the way for more extensive studies integrating serum metabolomic parameters with PET\/CT imaging data to extract sensitive composite disease indexes useful for everyday clinical practice.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cells13221851","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,8]],"date-time":"2024-11-08T04:02:54Z","timestamp":1731038574000},"page":"1851","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography\/Computed Tomography in Large-Vessel Vasculitis During Active and Inactive Disease Stages Is Associated with the Metabolic Profile, but Not the Macrophage-Related Cytokines: A Proof-of-Concept Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Dimitris Anastasios","family":"Palamidas","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathophysiology and Joint Academic Rheumatology Program, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11526 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2042-1569","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Georgios","family":"Kalykakis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Informatics, Ionian University, 49100 Kerkyra, Greece"},{"name":"PET-CT Department & Preclinical Imaging Unit, Center for Experimental Surgery, Clinical & Translational Research, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3072-204X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dimitra","family":"Benaki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15771 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2832-0116","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Loukas","family":"Chatzis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathophysiology and Joint Academic Rheumatology Program, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11526 Athens, Greece"},{"name":"Research Institute for Systemic Autoimmune Diseases, 11526 Athens, Greece"},{"name":"Laboratory of Immunobiology, Center for Clinical, Experimental Surgery and Translational Research, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ourania D.","family":"Argyropoulou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathophysiology and Joint Academic Rheumatology Program, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11526 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Panagiota","family":"Palla","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathophysiology and Joint Academic Rheumatology Program, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11526 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Antonia","family":"Kollia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"PET-CT Department & Preclinical Imaging Unit, Center for Experimental Surgery, Clinical & Translational Research, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pavlos","family":"Kafouris","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"PET-CT Department & Preclinical Imaging Unit, Center for Experimental Surgery, Clinical & Translational Research, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marinos","family":"Metaxas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"PET-CT Department & Preclinical Imaging Unit, Center for Experimental Surgery, Clinical & Translational Research, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4343-0396","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andreas V.","family":"Goules","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathophysiology and Joint Academic Rheumatology Program, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11526 Athens, Greece"},{"name":"Research Institute for Systemic Autoimmune Diseases, 11526 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5984-5169","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Emmanuel","family":"Mikros","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15771 Athens, Greece"},{"name":"Athena Research and Innovation Center in Information Communication & Knowledge Technologies, 15125 Marousi, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Konstantinos","family":"Kambas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Department of Immunology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, 11521 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Constantinos D.","family":"Anagnostopoulos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"PET-CT Department & Preclinical Imaging Unit, Center for Experimental Surgery, Clinical & Translational Research, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6666-8642","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Athanasios G.","family":"Tzioufas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathophysiology and Joint Academic Rheumatology Program, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11526 Athens, Greece"},{"name":"Research Institute for Systemic Autoimmune Diseases, 11526 Athens, Greece"},{"name":"Laboratory of Immunobiology, Center for Clinical, Experimental Surgery and Translational Research, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"234","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(08)61077-6","article-title":"Polymyalgia rheumatica and giant-cell arteritis","volume":"372","author":"Salvarani","year":"2008","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Palamidas, D.A., Chatzis, L., Papadaki, M., Gissis, I., Kambas, K., Andreakos, E., Goules, A.V., and Tzioufas, A.G. (2024). Current Insights into Tissue Injury of Giant Cell Arteritis: From Acute Inflammatory Responses towards Inappropriate Tissue Remodeling. Cells, 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/cells13050430"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Prieto-Pe\u00f1a, D., Casta\u00f1eda, S., Mart\u00ednez-Rodr\u00edguez, I., Atienza-Mateo, B., Blanco, R., and Gonz\u00e1lez-Gay, M.A. (2021). Imaging Tests in the Early Diagnosis of Giant Cell Arteritis. J. Clin. Med., 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm10163704"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"515","DOI":"10.2967\/jnumed.122.265016","article-title":"Role of (18)F-FDG PET\/CT in Large Vessel Vasculitis and Polymyalgia Rheumatica","volume":"64","author":"Slart","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Nucl. 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