Abstract #3038

Simultaneous Imaging of Cerebral Perfusion and Glucose Metabolism by PET/MRI

Udunna Anazodo¹,², R. Stodika¹,², John Butler¹, Jonathan Mandel³, Terry Thompson¹,², F.S Prato¹,², Danny J.J. Wang⁴, Keith, S St. Lawrence¹,²

¹Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada; ²Medical Biophysics, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; ³Radiology Department, St Joseph's Health Care, London, Ontario, Canada; ⁴Department of Neurology, UCLA, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Objective of this study was to investigate the ability of a hybrid PET/MRI scanner to collect whole-brain images of cerebral perfusion and metabolism simultaneously by combining pseudo-continuous ASL with PET imaging of fluorine-18 fluoro-deoxyglucose (FDG) imaging. A strong correlation between regional cerebral blood flow and energy metabolism was found in two neurologically normal patients and one patient with traumatic brain injury. A perfusion/metabolism mismatch was found in a patient with frontotemporal dementia, similar to previous studies of Alzhemiers disease.