Simultaneous PET-MRI imaging of cerebral blood flow and glucose metabolism in the symptomatic unilateral internal carotid artery/middle cerebral artery steno-occlusive disease

  • Bixiao Cui
  • , Tianhao Zhang
  • , Yan Ma
  • , Zhongwei Chen
  • , Jie Ma
  • , Lei Ma
  • , Liqun Jiao
  • , Yun Zhou
  • , Baoci Shan
  • , Jie Lu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose: Cerebral blood flow (CBF) and glucose metabolism are important and significant factors in ischaemic cerebrovascular disease. The objective of this study was to use quantitative hybrid PET/MR to evaluate the effects of surgery treatment on the symptomatic unilateral internal carotid artery/middle cerebral artery steno-occlusive disease. Methods: Fifteen patients diagnosed with ischaemic cerebrovascular disease were evaluated using a hybrid TOF PET/MR system (Signa, GE Healthcare). The CBF value measured by arterial spin labelling (ASL) and the standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) measured by 18F-FDG PET were obtained, except for the infarct area and its contralateral side, before and after bypass surgery. The asymmetry index (AI) was calculated from the CBF and SUVR of the ipsilateral and contralateral cerebral hemispheres, respectively. The ΔCBF and ΔSUVR were calculated as the percent changes of CBF and SUVR between before and after surgery, and paired t tests were used to determine whether a significant change occurred. Spearman’s rank correlation was also used to compare CBF with glucose metabolism in the same region. Results: The analysis primarily revealed that after bypass surgery, a statistically significant increase occurred in the CBF on the affected side (P < 0.01). The postprocedural SUVR was not significantly higher than the preprocedural SUVR (P > 0.05). However, the postprocedural AI values for CBF and SUVR were significantly lower after surgery than before surgery (P < 0.01). A significant correlation was found between the AI values for preoperative CBF and SUVR on the ipsilateral hemisphere (P < 0.01). Conclusions: The present study demonstrates that a combination of ASL and 18F-FDG PET could be used to simultaneously analyse changes in patients’ cerebral haemodynamic patterns and metabolism between before and after superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery (STA-MCA) bypass surgery. This therefore represents an essential tool for the evaluation of critical haemodynamic and metabolic status in patients with symptomatic unilateral ischaemic cerebrovascular disease.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1668-1677
Number of pages10
JournalEuropean Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
Volume47
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1 2020

Keywords

  • Cerebral blood flow
  • Glucose metabolism
  • Ischaemic cerebrovascular disease
  • PET/MR
  • Superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery bypass

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