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Iodine-123-alpha-methyl tyrosine in gliomas: correlation with cellular density and proliferative activity
T Kuwert1, S Probst-Cousin, B Woesler
1Department of Nuclear Medicine, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany.
Unlabelled:
Amino acid transport rate in gliomas can be assessed using SPECT and the amino acid L-123I-alpha-methyl tyrosine (IMT). This study attempted to correlate the uptake of IMT by gliomas with the proliferative activity and cellular density of these neoplasms.
Methods:
The study used 27 patients with gliomas, including 18 patients with high-grade tumors and nine patients with low-grade neoplasms. Amino acid transport rate was determined using IMT and the triple-headed SPECT camera. Proliferative activity was immunohistochemically assessed as the relative number of cells expressing the Ki-67 nuclear antigen; cellular density was evaluated using light microscopy.
Results:
Relative IMT uptake correlated significantly with the proliferative fraction of tumor cells (r = 0.6, p < 0.001). There was no significant correlation between IMT uptake and cellular density (r = 0.25, p > 0.05).
Conclusion:
The uptake of the SPECT radiopharmaceutical IMT is related to proliferative activity rather than to the cellular density of gliomas.