Construction and comparative evaluation of different activity detection methods in brain FDG-PET

Metabolic imaging and plasticity

Positron emission tomography greatly advanced our understanding on the underlying neural mechanisms of movement disorders. PET with flurodeoxyglucose (FDG) is especially useful as it depicts regional metabolic activity level that can predict patients' symptoms. Multivariate pattern analysis has been used to determine and quantify the co-varying brain networks associated with specific clinical traits of neurodegenerative disease. The result is a biomarker, useful for diagnosis, treatments, and follow up studies. Parkinsonian traits and parkinsonisms are associated with specific spatial pattern of metabolic abnormality useful for differential diagnosis. This approach has also been used for monitoring disease progression and novel treatment responses mostly in Parkinson's disease. In this book chapter, we, illustrate and discuss the significance of the brain networks associated with disease and their modification with neuroplastic changes.

Imaging Cerebral Glucose Metabolism during Dual-Task Walking in Patients with Parkinson's disease

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Gait impairment is a hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD). Natural walking involves more cognitive demand than treadmill walking or in-laboratory walking tests because patients have to actively work on navigation and top-down cognitive control which taxes cognitive reserve in the prefrontal cortex. To mimic the prefrontal engagement occurring with natural walking in a controlled and safe environment, dual-task (DT) treadmill walking has been developed. In this study, we tested the feasibility of imaging DT walking-related changes in brain glucose metabolism in patients with PD.

METHODS

Fifteen patients with PD were scanned with fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography. Five patients performed DT walking, and 10 patients were rested during the FDG uptake period. First, the images were contrasted between the groups. Second, the walking-related brain glucose metabolism was inspected at the individual level.

RESULTS

Consistently increased glucose metabolism was identified in DT walking versus rest in the primary visual/sensorimotor areas, thalamus, superior colliculus, and cerebellum. In individual level analysis, patients with less progressed disease (n = 3) showed prefrontal activity during DT walking while patients with more progressed disease (n = 2) did not.

CONCLUSION

This study confirms the feasibility of imaging glucose metabolism during DT walking in patients with PD. We also report that during DT walking, there is a lesser degree of prefrontal engagement in the patients with more progressed disease compared to those with less progressed disease, implying increased degrees of frontal dysfunction with PD progression.

Clinical Use of Integrated Positron Emission Tomography-Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Dementia Patients

Combining magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with 2-deoxy-2-F-fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) data improve the imaging accuracy for detection of Alzheimer disease and related dementias. Integrated FDG-PET-MRI is a recent technical innovation that allows both imaging modalities to be obtained simultaneously from individual patients with cognitive impairment. This report describes the practical benefits and challenges of using integrated FDG-PET-MRI to support the clinical diagnosis of various dementias. Over the past 7 years, we have performed integrated FDG-PET-MRI on >1500 patients with possible cognitive impairment or dementia. The FDG-PET and MRI protocols are the same as current conventions, but are obtained simultaneously over 25 minutes. An additional Dixon MRI sequence with superimposed bone atlas is used to calculate PET attenuation correction. A single radiologist interprets all imaging data and generates 1 report. The most common positive finding is concordant temporoparietal volume loss and FDG hypometabolism that suggests increased risk for underlying Alzheimer disease. Lobar-specific atrophy and FDG hypometabolism patterns that may be subtle, asymmetric, and focal also are more easily recognized using combined FDG-PET and MRI, thereby improving detection of other neurodegeneration conditions such as primary progressive aphasias and frontotemporal degeneration. Integrated PET-MRI has many practical benefits to individual patients, referrers, and interpreting radiologists. The integrated PET-MRI system requires several modifications to standard imaging center workflows, and requires training individual radiologists to interpret both modalities in conjunction. Reading MRI and FDG-PET together increases imaging diagnostic yield for individual patients; however, both modalities have limitations in specificity.

Clinical Personal Connectomics Using Hybrid PET/MRI

Brain connectivity can now be studied with topological analysis using persistent homology. It overcame the arbitrariness of thresholding to make binary graphs for comparison between disease and normal control groups. Resting-state fMRI can yield personal interregional brain connectivity based on perfusion signal on MRI on individual subject bases and FDG PET produces the topography of glucose metabolism. Assuming metabolism perfusion coupling and disregarding the slight difference of representing time of metabolism (before image acquisition) and representing time of perfusion (during image acquisition), topography of brain metabolism on FDG PET and topologically analyzed brain connectivity on resting-state fMRI might be related to yield personal connectomics of individual subjects and even individual patients. The work of association of FDG PET/resting-state fMRI is yet to be warranted; however, the statistics behind the group comparison of connectivity on FDG PET or resting-state MRI was already developed. Before going further into the connectomics construction using directed weighted brain graphs of FDG PET or resting-state fMRI, I detailed in this review the plausibility of using hybrid PET/MRI to enable the interpretation of personal connectomics which can lead to the clinical use of brain connectivity in the near future.

18F-FDG PET/CT: an unexpected case of Huntington's disease

Background

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a rare, genetic neurodegenerative disorder often presenting with emotional, cognitive and behavioral abnormalities before manifestation of disease defining motor symptoms. Cognitive impairment is a frequent clinical feature caused by different dementia subtypes. Imaging cortical and subcortical glucose metabolism via ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT can help to discriminate the underlying disease.

Case presentation

The patient is a 54-year old man presenting with progressive cognitive impairment and mild orofacial dyskinesia. ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT of the brain revealed a severe bilateral hypometabolism in the striatum. Following imaging Huntington’s disease was suspected and a molecular genetic testing confirmed the diagnosis.

Conclusions

Huntington’s disease is a rare but important differential diagnosis of cognitive impairment, especially before motor symptoms are manifest. ¹⁸F-FDG PET is capable to show early striatal dysfunction in HD even when structural imaging is normal. We conclude that, in cases with negative family history the HD characteristic metabolic pattern can lead to the diagnosis when no other dementia-suspected changes are present.

Effects of chronic abdominal vagal stimulation of small-diameter neurons on brain metabolism and food intake

BACKGROUND

Abdominal bilateral vagal stimulation reduces food intake in animals. However, the classical square wave, mA range current generator is poorly effective to evoke action potentials on A∂ and C neurons that represent the majority of vagal neurons at the abdominal level.

OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS

METHODS: The current thresholds for pulsons (S2 & S3) and millisecond pulses (S1) required to trigger action potentials were calculated in 5 anaesthetized pigs using single fibre recording. Similar stimulation protocols were compared chronically to sham stimulation in 24 pigs. After two weeks of chronic stimulation, food intake and brain metabolism were investigated. The electrical characteristics and histology of the vagus nerve were also studied.

RESULTS

S3 stimulation required a lower amount of charges to trigger an action potential. Chronically applied S2 & S3 activated the dorsal vagal complex and increased the metabolism of its afferent cortical structures. They also reduced energy intake together with a reduced ingestion of high fat and high sugar diets. All these effects were not observed for the S1 group. The vagal histology for the S1, S2 and S3 groups was not different from that of the sham.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings demonstrate that pulsons applied bilaterally on the abdominal vagus reduced food intake as a consequence of the activation of the brainstem and higher-order brain areas.

Comparative Study of Voxel-Based Epileptic Foci Localization Accuracy between Statistical Parametric Mapping and Three-dimensional Stereotactic Surface Projection

Introduction

Fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (¹⁸F-FDG-PET) is widely used to help localize the hypometabolic epileptogenic focus for presurgical evaluation of drug-refractory epilepsy patients. Two voxel-based brain mapping methods to interpret ¹⁸F-FDG-PET, statistical parametric mapping (SPM) and three-dimensional stereotactic surface projection (3D-SSP), improve the detection rate of seizure foci. This study aimed to compare the consistency of epileptic focus detection between SPM and 3D-SSP for ¹⁸F-FDG-PET brain mapping analysis.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed the clinical, electroecephalographic, and brain imaging results of 35 patients with refractory epilepsy. ¹⁸F-FDG-PET studies were revaluated by SPM, 3D-SSP, and visual assessment, and the results were compared to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) lesion location and to the presumed epileptogenic zone (PEZ) defined by video-electroencephalogram and other clinical data. A second consistency study compared PET analyses to histopathology and surgical outcomes in the 19 patients who underwent lesion resection surgery.

Results

Of the 35 patients, consistency with the PEZ was 29/35 for SPM, 25/35 for 3D-SSP, 14/35 for visual assessment, and 10/35 for MRI. Concordance rates with the PEZ were significantly higher for SPM and 3D-SSP than for MRI (P < 0.05) and visual assessment (P < 0.05). Differences between SPM and 3D-SSP and between visual assessment and MRI were not significant. In the 19 surgical patients, concordance with histopathology/clinical outcome was 14/19 for SPM, 15/19 for 3D-SSP, 14/19 for visual assessment, and 9/19 for MRI (P > 0.05). A favorable Engel outcome (class I/II) was found in 16 of 19 cases (84%), and failure of seizure control was found in 3 of 19 patients (class III/IV).

Conclusion

Voxel-based ¹⁸F-FDG-PET brain mapping analysis using SPM or 3D-SSP can improve the detection rate of the epileptic focus compared to visual assessment and MRI. Consistency with PEZ was similar between SPM and 3D-SSP; according to their own characteristics, 3D-SSP is recommended for primary evaluation due to greater efficiency and operability of the software, while SPM is recommended for high-accuracy localization of complex lesions. Therefore, joint application of both software packages may be the best solution for FDG-PET analysis of epileptic focus localization.