Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Creating Dynamic Images of Short-lived Dopamine Fluctuations with lp-ntPET: Dopamine Movies of Cigarette Smoking
Published on: August 6, 2013
Reproducibility studies with 11C-DTBZ, a monoamine vesicular transporter inhibitor in healthy human subjects
G L Chan1, J E Holden, A J Stoessl
1TRIUMF and Neurodegenerative Disorders Center, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Unlabelled:
The reproducibility of (+/-)-alpha-[11C] dihydrotetrabenazine (DTBZ) measures in PET was studied in 10 healthy human subjects, aged 22-76 y.
Methods:
The scan-to-scan variation of several measures used in PET data analysis was determined, including the radioactivity ratio (target-to-reference), plasma-input Logan total distribution volume (DV), plasma-input Logan Bmax/Kd and tissue-input Logan Bmax/Kd values.
Results:
The radioactivity ratios, plasma-input Bmax/Kd and tissue-input Bmax/Kd all have higher reliability than plasma-input total DV values. In addition, measures using the occipital cortex as the reference region have higher reliability than the same measures using the cerebellum as the reference region.
Conclusion:
Our results show that DTBZ is a reliable PET tracer that provides reproducible in vivo measurement of striatal vesicular monoamine transporter density. In the selection of reference regions for DTBZ PET data analysis, caution must be exercised in circumstances when DTBZ binding in the occipital cortex or the cerebellum may be altered.
Related Concept Videos
Imaging Studies II: Positron Emission Tomography and Scintigraphy
Fundamental Principles of PET
Bioavailability Study Design: Healthy Subjects Versus Patients

