Introduction and aims: Although primarily a lung disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is now recognised to have extra-pulmonary effects on distant organs, the “systemic effects” and co-morbidities of COPD. Aim of this study was to quantify vascular inflammation in 20 COPD ex-smokers and 4 healthy controls (non-smokers) using combined 18F-labelled fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/ computerised tomography(18FDG PET/CT) scan. Methodology: We quantified vascular inflammation in the above subjects. Region of interests (ROIs) were drawn around the aorta and the mean and maximum aortic standardised uptake values (SUVs) were obtained from the pixel activity within each ROIs at 50 minutes scan time-point. This was correlated with systemic markers of inflammation (C-reactive protein, fibrinogen and neutrophil count). Results: COPD patients had higher levels of systemic inflammatory markers and showed a non-significant increase in mean aortic SUV than the healthy controls (COPD: 2.59 ± 0.42; Control: 2.28 ± 0.43, p =0.189) (Fig 1b). There was a significant positive correlation between aortic inflammation quantified by SUV mean and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) in combined group of COPD and controls (r= 0.674, p=0.01) (Fig 1a). Conclusion: Compared to healthy controls the COPD group showed evidence of enhanced systemic inflammation and may also have increased vascular specific inflammation.