Brain FDG PET study of normal aging in Japanese: effect of atrophy correction.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of atrophy correction on the results of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) in the context of normal aging.


METHODS
Before the human study was performed, a Hoffman 3D brain phantom experiment was carried out in order to validate a newly developed correction method for partial volume effects (PVEs). Brain FDG PET was then performed in 139 healthy Japanese volunteers (71 men, 68 women; age 24-81 years). PET images were corrected for PVEs using grey matter volume, which was segmented from co-registered magnetic resonance images and convoluted with the spatial resolution of the PET scanner. We investigated the correlation between advancing age and relative regional FDG activity, which was normalised to the global activity before and after PVE correction using Statistical Parametric Mapping 99.


RESULTS
The PET image, when corrected for PVEs, provided more homogeneous tracer distribution in the whole phantom than in the original PET image. The human PET study of both sexes revealed significant negative correlations between age and relative FDG activity in the bilateral perisylvian and medial frontal areas before PVE correction. However, these negative correlations were largely resolved after PVE correction.


CONCLUSIONS
Correction for PVEs was effective in our FDG PET study. The reduction in FDG uptake with advancing age that was detected by FDG PET without PVE correction could be accounted for largely by an age-related cerebral volume loss in the bilateral perisylvian and medial frontal areas.
Yanase
Daisuke
D
Department of Neurology and Neurobiology of Aging, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa, Japan.
Matsunari
Ichiro
I
Yajima
Kazuyoshi
K
Chen
Weiping
W
Fujikawa
Akihiko
A
Nishimura
Shintaro
S
Matsuda
Hiroshi
H
Yamada
Masahito
M
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D001284:Atrophy; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005947:Glucose / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007564:Japan; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005947:Glucose