351. [Methyl-11C]thymidine positron emission tomography in tumoral and non-tumoral cerebral lesions.
- Author
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De Reuck J, Santens P, Goethals P, Strijckmans K, Lemahieu I, Boon P, Achten E, Lemmerling M, Vandekerckhove T, and Caemaert J
- Subjects
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Astrocytoma diagnostic imaging, Blood-Brain Barrier, Brain Diseases diagnosis, Brain Neoplasms diagnosis, Cerebral Hemorrhage diagnosis, Cerebral Hemorrhage diagnostic imaging, Cerebral Infarction diagnosis, Cerebral Infarction diagnostic imaging, Diagnosis, Differential, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Hematoma diagnosis, Hematoma diagnostic imaging, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neoplasm Recurrence, Local diagnostic imaging, Prospective Studies, Sensitivity and Specificity, Supratentorial Neoplasms diagnosis, Supratentorial Neoplasms diagnostic imaging, Thymidine pharmacokinetics, Brain Diseases diagnostic imaging, Brain Neoplasms diagnostic imaging, Carbon Radioisotopes pharmacokinetics, Cerebral Cortex diagnostic imaging, Radiopharmaceuticals pharmacokinetics, Thymidine analogs & derivatives, Tomography, Emission-Computed
- Abstract
Background: No ideal radiopharmaceutical exists for positron emission tomography (PET) that fulfills all clinical requirements for the study of brain tumors., Purpose: The usefulness of a recently developed PET tracer, [methyl-11C]thymidine ([methyl-11C]TdR) is explored in brain tumors., Patients and Methods: Twenty patients with confirmed tumoral and non-tumoral brain lesions were investigated with [methyl-11C] TdR PET. The 11C activity was visually and quantitatively assessed. In two patients, dynamic scans were performed. The PET findings were compared to those of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) of the brain and to the final diagnosis., Results: Eight out of ten patients with confirmed tumoral lesions or tumor recurrence had increased 11C activity within the lesion. In ten non-tumoral lesions no increased 11C uptake was found. The dynamic PET studies showed that [methyl-11C] TdR first acts as a blood flow tracer, but that later on the uptake of 11C activity is due to labeled metabolites, crossing the blood-brain barrier. Increased tracer activity was only observed in tumoral and not in non-tumoral contrast-enhanced lesions on MRI or CT., Conclusions: [Methyl-11C] TdR is not a selective PET radiopharmaceutical for brain tumors, but can be used as a tracer for tumoral blood-brain barrier disruption.
- Published
- 1999