Radionuclide Imaging of Infective Endocarditis: State of Art and Future Perspective

Purpose of Review: Infectious endocarditis is a serious disease requiring rapid diagnosis and accurate risk stratification to offer the best therapeutic strategy. Infection of prosthetic valve (PV) and cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) is increasing due to the ageing of the population and the growing number of implants. Foreign material infection remains clinically challenging given the limitation of ultrasound techniques in this context whereas the diagnosis must be precocious. Recent Findings: 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ([18F]FDG PET/CT) and radiolabelled leukocytes single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) are commonly used for this purpose. Summary: In the present article, we summarized the available evidence for the use of nuclear imaging for the evaluation of infectious endocarditis.