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Hybrid MR-PET of brain tumours using amino acid PET and chemical exchange saturation transfer MRI

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Abstract

Purpose

PET using radiolabelled amino acids has become a promising tool in the diagnostics of gliomas and brain metastasis. Current research is focused on the evaluation of amide proton transfer (APT) chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) MR imaging for brain tumour imaging. In this hybrid MR-PET study, brain tumours were compared using 3D data derived from APT-CEST MRI and amino acid PET using O-(2-18F-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (18F-FET).

Methods

Eight patients with gliomas were investigated simultaneously with 18F-FET PET and APT-CEST MRI using a 3-T MR-BrainPET scanner. CEST imaging was based on a steady-state approach using a B1 average power of 1μT. B0 field inhomogeneities were corrected a Prametric images of magnetisation transfer ratio asymmetry (MTRasym) and differences to the extrapolated semi-solid magnetisation transfer reference method, APT# and nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE#), were calculated. Statistical analysis of the tumour-to-brain ratio of the CEST data was performed against PET data using the non-parametric Wilcoxon test.

Results

A tumour-to-brain ratio derived from APT# and 18F-FET presented no significant differences, and no correlation was found between APT# and 18F-FET PET data. The distance between local hot spot APT# and 18F-FET were different (average 20 ± 13 mm, range 4–45 mm).

Conclusion

For the first time, CEST images were compared with 18F-FET in a simultaneous MR-PET measurement. Imaging findings derived from18F-FET PET and APT CEST MRI seem to provide different biological information. The validation of these imaging findings by histological confirmation is necessary, ideally using stereotactic biopsy.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Lutz Tellmann, Silke Frensh, Suzanne Schaden and Kornelia Frey for assistance with the MR-PET measurements. We also thank the PET and MR groups for fruitful discussions.

Funding

This study received support from the COST Action TD1007 (COST-STSM-ECOST-STSM-TD1007-010515-057663). NJS is funded in part by the Helmholtz Alliance ICEMED - Imaging and Curing Environmental Metabolic Diseases, through the Initiative and Network Fund of the Helmholtz Association. Further, NJS is supported in part by TRIMAGE, an EU FP7 project (grant agreement no. 602621).

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Author notes

  1. A. W. Magill

    Present address: Medical Physics in Radiology, German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425, Jülich, Germany

    N. A. da Silva, P. Lohmann, A. W. Magill, A.-M. Oros Peusquens, C.-H. Choi, R. Stirnberg, G. Stoffels, N. Galldiks, K.-J. Langen & N. Jon Shah

  2. Department of Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, London, UK

    J. Fairney & X. Golay

  3. Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, London, UK

    J. Fairney & X. Golay

  4. German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany

    R. Stirnberg

  5. Department of Neurology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    N. Galldiks

  6. Center of Integrated Oncology (CIO), Universities of Cologne and Bonn, Cologne, Germany

    N. Galldiks

  7. Juelich-Aachen Research Alliance (JARA), Section JARA-Brain, Jülich, Germany

    K.-J. Langen

  8. Department of Nuclear Medicine, RWTH University of Aachen, Aachen, Germany

    K.-J. Langen & N. Jon Shah

  9. Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    N. Jon Shah

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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da Silva, N.A., Lohmann, P., Fairney, J. et al. Hybrid MR-PET of brain tumours using amino acid PET and chemical exchange saturation transfer MRI. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 45, 1031–1040 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-018-3940-4

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