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Cerebral Glucose Metabolism

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PET and SPECT of Neurobiological Systems

Abstract

Glucose is the main substrate for energy metabolism of the brain, and the regional cerebral metabolic rate is directly related to regional brain activity. Therefore, the measurement of regional glucose metabolism is of great importance for the assessment of regional normal function and of pathological changes. Quantitation of glucose metabolism by PET is based on the 2-deoxyglucose method developed by Sokoloff and colleagues: F18-labelled deoxyglucose (FDG) is transported into the brain and phosphorylated, but cannot be further metabolised and therefore is accumulated intracellularly. The concentration of the tracer can be measured three dimensionally by PET, and together with the arterial tracer concentration, the kinetics of glucose uptake can be assessed and the regional cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (rCMRGlc) can be calculated.

rCMRGlc is high in cortex and grey matter structures and low in white matter, but there are significant differences among various regions. Metabolic rate is slightly reduced with ageing and changed by sleep, dream, and functional activation. CMRGlc is significantly affected in pathological states and the regional and global changes are important for assessing severity of disorders and for differential diagnosis of diseases of the brain. Therefore, FDG-PET has still great importance in brain research and many applications in clinical neurology.

Wolf-Dieter Heiss was supported by the WDH Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research, Gleueler Str. 50, Köln, 50931, Germany

    Wolf-Dieter Heiss

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  1. Wolf-Dieter Heiss
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Correspondence to Wolf-Dieter Heiss .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Rudi A.J.O. Dierckx

  2. Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, University of Applied Sciences Offenburg, Offenburg, Germany

    Andreas Otte

  3. Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Erik F.J. de Vries

  4. Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Aren van Waarde

  5. Molecular Neurobiology, Universtiy of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Paul G.M. Luiten

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Heiss, WD. (2014). Cerebral Glucose Metabolism. In: Dierckx, R., Otte, A., de Vries, E., van Waarde, A., Luiten, P. (eds) PET and SPECT of Neurobiological Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-42014-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-42014-6_3

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