Abstract
Objective
The aim of this study was to investigate whether normoglycemic glucose concentrations interfere with cerebral F-18 FDG uptake.
Methods
The analysis was based on 2 sets of paired PET scans in 94 patients who were in complete metabolic remission after the successful completion of treatment for lymphoma. For these 188 PET scans, 2 subgroups were defined according to the plasma glucose level at the time of scanning. Group 1 contained the PET images that were associated with the lower of both normoglycemic plasma glucose levels, whereas group 2 contained the PET images that were associated with the higher of both plasma glucose levels. SUVs (standard uptake values) in the cerebellum between both groups were compared using paired sample T test. Subsequently, SUVs were normalized to a standard glucose concentration and normalized SUVs were again compared. Further, we calculated the coefficient of variation of SUVs in group 1 and 2 both before and after the normalization step.
Results
Mean plasma glucose level was 86 mg/dL (SD of 9 mg/dL) in group 1 and 97 mg/dL (SD of 10 mg/dL) in group 2. Mean SUV was 3.8 (SD of 1.1) for group 1 and 3.5 (SD of 1.1) for group 2. Mean SUV in group 1 was slightly but statistically significantly higher than the mean SUV in group 2 (p < 0.01). Mean normalized SUV was 3.6 (SD of 1.1) in group 1 and 3.7 (SD of 1.3) in group 2. A paired comparison between normalized SUVs in both groups indicated that there was no statistically significant difference (p < 0.31). The coefficient of variation for the SUVs in group 1 and 2 before normalization was 29 and 30%, respectively. The coefficient of variation for the normalized SUVs in group 1 and 2 was 30 and 34%, respectively.
Conclusions
Our results indicated that plasma glucose levels that are within the normoglycemic range have a small but systematic effect on F-18 FDG uptake in the brain (following an inverse relationship). Normalizing plasma glucose levels to a standard glucose concentration successfully reduced the intra-subject variability of SUV measures. Inter-subject variability, however, remained high suggesting that other factors have an influence as well.
References
Reivich M, Kuhl D, Wolf A, Greenberg J, Phelps M, Ido T, et al. The [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose method for the measurement of local cerebral glucose utilization in man. Circ Res. 1979;44:127–37.
Phelps ME, Huang SC, Hoffman EJ, Selin C, Sokoloff L, Kuhl DE. Tomographic measurement of local cerebral glucose metabolic rate in humans with (F-18) 2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose: validation of method. Ann Neurol. 1979;6:371–88.
Thie JA, Smith GT, Hubner KF. 2-deoxy-2-[F-18]fluoro-d-glucose-positron emission tomography sensitivity to serum glucose: a survey and diagnostic applications. Mol Imaging Biol. 2005;7:361–8.
Dunn JT, Anthony K, Amiel SA, Marsden PK. Correction for the effect of rising plasma glucose levels on quantification of MR(glc) with FDG-PET. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2009;29:1059–67.
Ishizu K, Sadato N, Yonekura Y, Nishizawa S, Magata Y, Tamaki N, et al. Enhanced detection of brain tumors by [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose PET with glucose loading. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1994;18:12–5.
Ishizu K, Nishizawa S, Yonekura Y, Sadato N, Magata Y, Tamaki N, et al. Effects of hyperglycemia on FDG uptake in human brain and glioma. J Nucl Med. 1994;35:1104–9.
Buchert R, Santer R, Brenner W, Apostolova I, Mester J, Clausen M, et al. Computer simulations suggest that acute correction of hyperglycaemia with an insulin bolus protocol might be useful in brain FDG PET. Nuklearmedizin. 2009;48:44–54.
Kawasaki K, Ishii K, Saito Y, Oda K, Kimura Y, Ishiwata K. Influence of mild hyperglycemia on cerebral FDG distribution patterns calculated by statistical parametric mapping. Ann Nucl Med. 2008;22:191–200.
Boellaard R, O’Doherty MJ, Weber WA, Mottaghy FM, Lonsdale MN, Stroobants SG, et al. FDG PET and PET/CT: EANM procedure guidelines for tumour PET imaging: version 1.0. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2010;37(1):181–200.
Tsuchida T, Sadato N, Nishizawa S, Yonekura Y, Itoh H. Effect of postprandial hyperglycaemia in non-invasive measurement of cerebral metabolic rate of glucose in non-diabetic subjects. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2002;29:248–50.
Turcotte E, Leblanc M, Carpentier A, Benard F. Optimization of whole-body positron emission tomography imaging by using delayed 2-deoxy-2-[F-18]fluoro-d-glucose injection following I.V. Insulin in diabetic patients. Mol Imaging Biol. 2006;8:348–54.
Seo YS, Chung TW, Kim IY, Bom HS, Min JJ. Enhanced detectability of recurrent brain tumor using glucose-loading F-18 FDG PET. Clin Nucl Med. 2008;33:32–3.
Farid K, Sibon I, Fernandez P, Guyot M, Jeandot R, Allard M. Delayed acquisition and hyperglycemia improve brain metastasis detection on F-18 FDG PET. Clin Nucl Med. 2009;34:533–4.
Duara R, Gross-Glenn K, Barker WW, Chang JY, Apicella A, Loewenstein D, et al. Behavioral activation and the variability of cerebral glucose metabolic measurements. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1987;7:266–71.
Giordani B, Boivin MJ, Berent S, Betley AT, Koeppe RA, Rothley JM, et al. Anxiety and cerebral cortical metabolism in normal persons. Psychiatry Res. 1990;35:49–60.
Franck G, Salmon E, Poirrier R, Sadzot B, Franco G. Study of regional cerebral glucose metabolism, in man, while awake or asleep, by positron emission tomography. Rev Electroencephalogr Neurophysiol Clin. 1987;17:71–7.
Reivich M, Gur R, Alavi A. Positron emission tomographic studies of sensory stimuli, cognitive processes and anxiety. Hum Neurobiol. 1983;2:25–33.
Gur RC, Gur RE, Resnick SM, Skolnick BE, Alavi A, Reivich M. The effect of anxiety on cortical cerebral blood flow and metabolism. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1987;7:173–7.
Warach S, Gur RC, Gur RE, Skolnick BE, Obrist WD, Reivich M. Decreases in frontal and parietal lobe regional cerebral blood flow related to habituation. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1992;12:546–53.
Hustinx R, Smith RJ, Benard F, Bhatnagar A, Alavi A. Can the standardized uptake value characterize primary brain tumors on FDG-PET? Eur J Nucl Med. 1999;26:1501–9.
Paquet N, Albert A, Foidart J, Hustinx R. Within-patient variability of (18)F-FDG: standardized uptake values in normal tissues. J Nucl Med. 2004;45:784–8.
Wang GJ, Volkow ND, Wolf AP, Brodie JD, Hitzemann RJ. Intersubject variability of brain glucose metabolic measurements in young normal males. J Nucl Med. 1994;35:1457–66.
Westerterp M, Pruim J, Oyen W, Hoekstra O, Paans A, Visser E, et al. Quantification of FDG PET studies using standardised uptake values in multi-centre trials: effects of image reconstruction, resolution and ROI definition parameters. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2007;34:392–404.
Boellaard R. Standards for PET image acquisition and quantitative data analysis. J Nucl Med. 2009;50(Suppl 1):11S–20S.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Claeys, J., Mertens, K., D’Asseler, Y. et al. Normoglycemic plasma glucose levels affect F-18 FDG uptake in the brain. Ann Nucl Med 24, 501–505 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12149-010-0359-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12149-010-0359-9