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Updated: Jan 28, 2026
A Dual Tracer PET-MRI Protocol for the Quantitative Measure of Regional Brain Energy Substrates Uptake in the Rat
Published on: December 28, 2013
Effects of plasma glucose levels on regional cerebral 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake: Implications for dementia
Benjamin L Viglianti1, Daniel J Wale1, Tianwen Ma2
1Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Nuclear Medicine Service, Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Purpose:
Hyperglycemia affects FDG uptake in the brain, potentially emulating Alzheimer's disease in normal individuals. This study investigates global and regional cerebral FDG uptake as a function of plasma glucose in a cohort of patients.
Methods:
120 consecutive male patients with FDG PET/CT for initial oncologic staging (July-Dec 2015) were reviewed. Patients with dementia, cerebrovascular accident, structural brain lesion, prior oncology treatment or high metabolic tumor burden (recently shown affecting brain FDG uptake) were excluded. 53 (24 nondiabetic) eligible patients (age 65.7 ± 2.8 mean ± SE) were analyzed with parametric computer software, MIMneuro™. Regional Z-scores were evaluated as a function of plasma glucose and age using multi variable linear mixed effects models with false discovery analysis adjusting for multiple comparisons. If the regression slope was significantly (p < 0.05) different than zero, hyperglycemia effect was present.
Results:
There was a negative inverse relationship (p < 0.001) between global brain FDG uptake and hyperglycemia. No regional hyperglycemia effect on uptake were present when subjects were normalized using pons or cerebellum. However, regional hyperglycemia effects were seen (p < 0.047-0.001) when normalizing by the whole brain. No obvious pattern was seen in the regions affected. Age had a significant effect using whole brain normalization (p < 0.04-0.01).
Conclusions:
Cortical variation in FDG uptake were identified when subjects were hyperglycemic. However, these variations didn't fit a particular pattern of dementia and the severity of the affect is not likely to alter clinical interpretation.
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