18 F-FDG PET standard uptake values of the normal pons in children: establishing a reference value for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma

Marc H A Jansen, Reina W Kloet, Dannis G van Vuurden, Sophie Em Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Birgit I Witte, Serge Goldman, W Peter Vandertop, Emile Fi Comans, Otto S Hoekstra, Ronald Boellaard, Gert-Jan Jl Kaspers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Positron emission tomography (PET) scanning with [18 F]fluorodeoxyglucose (18 F-FDG) is a useful diagnostic and prediction tool in brain tumors, but its value in childhood diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is still unclear. For interpretation of 18 F-FDG PET results in DIPG, uptake values of the normal pons of children of increasing ages are mandatory. The aim of this study was to determine 18 F-FDG standard uptake value ratios (SUVr) of the normal pons and to compare these to those of DIPG.

METHODS: We studied 36 subjects with a normal, non-affected pons (aged 5 to 23 years) and 6 patients with DIPG (aged 4 to 17 years) who underwent 18 F-FDG PET scanning. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was co-registered to define the regions of interest. SUVr and SUVrmax for the pons/cerebellum (SUVrp/c) and the pons/occipital lobe (SUVrp/o) were calculated. Independent-samples t tests and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to compare the mean SUVr and Pearson's test for correlations.

RESULTS: For the normal pons, mean SUVrp/c and SUVrp/o were 0.65 (±0.054) and 0.51 (±0.056), respectively. No significant correlations were found between the SUVr of the normal pons and sex, age, nor pontine volume. A modest but statistically significant correlation was found between SUVr and post-injection time acquisition timing. For DIPG, mean SUVrp/c and SUVrp/o were 0.74 (±0.20) and 0.65 (±0.30), respectively, while mean SUVrp(max)/c and SUVrp(max)/o were 1.95 (±0.48) and 1.81 (±0.20), respectively.

CONCLUSION: The SUVr of the unaffected pons are strikingly constant between children, irrespective of sex and age, and can therefore be well used as a reference value for 18 F-FDG PET studies in DIPG.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8
Pages (from-to)8
Number of pages7
JournalEJNMMI research
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Jan 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Brain neoplasms
  • Pons
  • Pontine glioma
  • Positron emission tomography
  • Reference values

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