Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. May 28, 2019; 11(5): 62-73
Published online May 28, 2019. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v11.i5.62
Imaging plaque inflammation in asymptomatic cocaine addicted individuals with simultaneous positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging
Keren Bachi, Venkatesh Mani, Audrey E Kaufman, Nadia Alie, Rita Z Goldstein, Zahi A Fayad, Nelly Alia-Klein
Keren Bachi, Rita Z Goldstein, Nelly Alia-Klein, Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029, United States
Keren Bachi, Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029, United States
Venkatesh Mani, Audrey E Kaufman, Nadia Alie, Zahi A Fayad, Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029, United States
Nadia Alie, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 3401 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
Rita Z Goldstein, Nelly Alia-Klein, Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029, United States
Author contributions: Mani V, Goldstein RZ, Fayad ZA and Alia-Klein N designed the research; Bachi K reviewed literature and collected drug use data; Mani V and Fayad ZA performed vascular imaging; Mani V, Kaufman AE and Alie N analyzed imaging data; Bachi K performed statistical analyses; Bachi K, Mani V, Goldstein RZ, Fayad ZA and Alia-Klein N provided interpretation; Mani V, Kaufman AE, Goldstein RZ and Fayad ZA provided commentary and manuscript editing; and Bachi K and Alia-Klein N wrote the paper.
Supported by NIDA, No. K23DA045928-01 (to Bachi K) and No. R01DA041528 (to Goldstein RZ); NIH/NHLBI, No. R01 HL071021; Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute internal funding (to Fayad ZAF); and American Heart Association Grant in Aid, No. 17GRNT33420119 (to Mani VM).
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was reviewed and conducted with approval by the Institutional Review Board of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (Study ID: GCO#01-1032).
Informed consent statement: All participants in the study cohort have signed an informed consent form prior to study enrollment as required by the Institutional Review Board of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Nelly Alia-Klein, PhD, Associate Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, One Gustave Levy, 1470 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10029, United States. nelly.alia-klein@mssm.edu
Telephone: +1-212-8249311
Received: February 16, 2019
Peer-review started: February 18, 2019
First decision: March 15, 2019
Revised: April 5, 2019
Accepted: May 21, 2019
Article in press: May 22, 2019
Published online: May 28, 2019
Processing time: 102 Days and 6.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Despite undetected clinical signs, cocaine use increases risk of stroke, coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction. Simultaneous carotid positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging can effectively evaluate vascular inflammation and plaque burden in individuals with cocaine use disorder. Cocaine users had increased wall area, comparable to individuals with cardiovascular risk and significantly higher than healthy controls. Wall area in cocaine users positively correlated with greater cocaine withdrawal and craving. Broader trials are warranted to develop protocols for early detection of cardiovascular risk and preventive intervention in individuals with cocaine use disorder.