Abstract
Purpose
Increased blood glucose level (BGL) has been reported to cause alterations of FDG uptake in the brain that mimic Alzheimer’s disease (AD), even within the "acceptable" range ≤ 160 mg/dl. The aim of this study was (i) to confirm this in a large sample of well-characterized normal control (NC) subjects, and (ii) to analyze its impact on the prediction of AD dementia (ADD) in mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
Methods
The study included NCs from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) that were cognitively stable for ≥36 months after PET (n = 87, 74.2 ± 5.3 y), and ADNI MCIs with ≥36 months follow-up if not progressed to ADD earlier (n = 323, 71.1 ± 7.1 y). Seventy-three of the MCIs had progressed to ADD within 36 months. In the NCs, parenchyma-scaled FDG uptake was tested for clusters of correlation with BGL on the family-wise, error-corrected 5% level. In the MCIs, ROC analysis was used to assess the power of FDG uptake in a predefined AD-typical region for prediction of ADD. ROC analysis was repeated after correcting mean FDG uptake in the AD-typical region for BGL based on linear regression in the NCs.
Results
In the NCs, BGL (59–149 mg/dl) was negatively correlated with FDG uptake in a cluster comprising the occipital cortex and precuneus but sparing the posterior cingulate, independent of amyloid-β and ApoE4 status. In the MCIs, FDG uptake in the AD-typical region provided an area of 0.804 under the ROC curve for prediction of ADD. Correcting FDG uptake in the AD-typical region for BGL (55–189 mg/dl) did not change predictive performance (area = 0.808, p = 0.311).
Conclusions
Increasing BGL is associated with relative reduction of FDG uptake in the posterior cortex even in the "acceptable" range ≤ 160 mg/dl. The BGL-associated pattern is similar to the typical AD pattern, but not identical. BGL-associated variability of regional FDG uptake has no relevant impact on the power of FDG PET for prediction of MCI-to-ADD progression.
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Acknowledgements
Data collection and sharing for this project was funded by the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI; National Institutes of Health grant U01 AG024904) and DOD ADNI (Department of Defense award number W81XWH-12-2-0012). ADNI is funded by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and through generous contributions from the following: AbbVie, Alzheimer’s Association; Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation; Araclon Biotech; BioClinica, Inc.; Biogen; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; CereSpir, Inc.; Cogstate; Eisai Inc.; Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Eli Lilly and Company; EuroImmun; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. and its affiliated company Genentech, Inc.; Fujirebio; GE Healthcare; IXICO Ltd.; Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy Research & Development, LLC; Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development LLC; Lumosity; Lundbeck; Merck & Co., Inc.; Meso Scale Diagnostics, LLC; NeuroRx Research; Neurotrack Technologies; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Pfizer Inc.; Piramal Imaging; Servier; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company; and Transition Therapeutics. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is providing funds to support ADNI clinical sites in Canada. Private sector contributions are facilitated by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (www.fnih.org). The grantee organization is the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, and the study is coordinated by the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute at the University of Southern California. ADNI data are disseminated by the Laboratory for Neuro Imaging at the University of Southern California.
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P.S. and L.S. are employees of jung diagnostics GmbH, Hamburg, Germany. This did not bias their work, as they have no financial interest in the results of this study. All other authors declare that they do not have any potential conflict of interest concerning this manuscript.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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As the present study was retrospective in nature, formal consent was not required.
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Data were obtained from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI; adni.loni.usc.edu). The investigators within the ADNI contributed to the design and implementation of ADNI and/or provided data but did not participate in the analysis/writing of this report. A complete list of ADNI investigators can be found at http://adni.loni.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/how_to_apply/ADNI_Acknowledgement_List.pdf
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Apostolova, I., Lange, C., Suppa, P. et al. Impact of plasma glucose level on the pattern of brain FDG uptake and the predictive power of FDG PET in mild cognitive impairment. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 45, 1417–1422 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-018-3985-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-018-3985-4