Feasibility of assessing [(18)F]FDG lung metabolism with late dynamic PET imaging.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this work was to non-invasively establish the feasibility of assessing 2-deoxy-2-[(18)F]fluoro-D-glucose ((18)F-FDG) lung metabolism with the use of a late dynamic positron emission tomograpy (PET) acquisition, i.e., beyond 2 h after injection.


METHODS
The present method has been probed in 11 patients without any respiratory disease, under fasting conditions, by assessing mean values of (18)F-FDG lung metabolism. A kinetic model analysis has been implemented on a simple calculation sheet. An arbitrary (population based) input function has been used in each individual, which was obtained from literature data.


RESULTS
In the healthy lung, no (18)F-FDG release was found, and the mean values (±SD) of the (18)F-FDG uptake rate constant and of the fraction of the free tracer in blood and interstitial volume were: K = 0.0016 min(-1) (±0.0005), and F = 0.18 (±0.10), respectively. These results were in very close agreement with literature data that were obtained by both three-compartment model analysis and Patlak graphical analysis (gold standards), and that used an invasive blood sampling. Furthermore, K and the standard uptake value index have been compared.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that assessing lung metabolism of (18)F-FDG in humans with the use of late dynamic PET imaging is feasible. The arbitrary input function of this non-invasive feasibility study could be replaced in further experiments by an input function obtained by arterial sampling. It is suggested that this method may prove useful to quantify (18)F-FDG lung metabolism under pathological conditions.
Laffon
Eric
E
CHU de Bordeaux, Hôpital du Haut Lévêque, 33604, Pessac, France. elaffon@u-bordeaux2.fr
de Clermont
Henri
H
Vernejoux
Jean-Marc
JM
Jougon
Jacques
J
Marthan
Roger
R
D000368:Aged; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008954:Models, Biological; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18