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Correction for the effect of rising plasma glucose levels on quantification of MRglc with FDG-PET

Standard methods for determining cerebral metabolic rate for glucose (cMRglu) in quantitative PET studies assume blood glucose concentration, [glu], remains constant throughout the measurement, which is not achievable in practice. We present a modification to the standard 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose compartmental model that incorporates dynamic measurements of arterial [glu] (readily available in such studies) and so accounts for variations in glucose concentration. The enhanced method results in significantly reduced errors – a large but realistic 40% increase in [glu] during a 90 min study results in a 15% error in cMRglu using the conventional approach, but only ~2% error with the proposed method.