Journal Article

Effects of blood glucose level on 18F fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) uptake for PET/CT in normal organs: an analysis on 5623 patients

Watte, Guilherme, Irion, Klaus, Altmayer, Stephan, Hochhegger, Bruno, Sprinz, Clarice, Zanon, Matheus, Marchiori, Edson

2018

Overview

Our purpose was to evaluate the effect of glycemia on 18 F-FDG uptake in normal organs of interest. The influences of other confounding factors, such as body mass index (BMI), diabetes, age, and sex, on the relationships between glycemia and organ-specific standardized uptake values (SUVs) were also investigated. We retrospectively identified 5623 consecutive patients who had undergone clinical PET/CT for oncological indications. Patients were stratified into groups based on glucose levels, measured immediately before 18 F-FDG injection. Differences in mean SUVmax values among glycemic ranges were clinically significant only when >10% variation was observed. The brain was the only organ that presented a significant inverse relationship between SUVmax and glycemia (p < 0.001), even after controlling for diabetic status. No such difference was observed for the liver or lung. After adjustment for sex, age, and BMI, the association of glycemia with SUVmax was significant for the brain and liver, but not for the lung. In conclusion, the brain was the only organ analyzed showing a clinically significant relationship to glycemia after adjustment for potentially confounding variables. The lung was least affected by the variables in our model, and may serve as an alternative background tissue to the liver.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 59/78 / 692/308/1426 / 692/4028/67/2321 / 692/4028/67/2327 / Aged / Blood glucose / Blood Glucose - metabolism / Body mass index / Brain - diagnostic imaging / Brain - metabolism / Diabetes mellitus / Female / Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 - metabolism / Glucose / Humanities and Social Sciences / Humans / Liver / Liver - diagnostic imaging / Liver - metabolism / Lung - diagnostic imaging / Lung - metabolism / Lungs / Male / Middle Aged / multidisciplinary / Positron emission tomography / Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography - methods / Radiopharmaceuticals - metabolism / Retrospective Studies / Science / Science (multidisciplinary)