Quantitative fluorine 18 deoxyglucose uptake by myocardial positron emission tomography in rats

BACKGROUND: In vivo quantitative assessment of positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-deoxy-2-[fluorine 18]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) for rat heart has not been explored because of the theoretical limitation of spatial resolution. Our objective was to assess whether FDG uptake measured by PET is correlated with tissue radioactivity of FDG in rat heart directly measured by an automated gamma counter. METHODS AND RESULTS: Ten Sprague-Dawley rats were used for echocardiographic assessment and FDG-PET. Rats were sacrificed immediately after PET scanning, and the radioactivity of FDG in 4 segmental tissue samples of the middle transverse section was measured. Quantitative PET values in a total of 40 regions of interest, in which partial volume effect was corrected based on the phantom study and wall thickness obtained by echocardiogram, were compared with radioactivity of the corresponding 40 tissue samples. Linear regression analysis revealed that tissue radioactivity of FDG was well correlated with the quantitative PET value (Y = 1.17X; r = 0.985, P <.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative FDG-PET for rat heart is a reliable approach for assessing glucose metabolism in vivo after correction is made for partial volume effect. These results can be used for various models of heart disease with repeated studies over the disease process in the same animal.