Evaluation of [11C]N-methyl acetazolamide PET/CT in early diagnosis of liver fibrosis
DU Ming1, HAN Ting-ting1, ZHANG Xin1, CAO Li1, ZHAO Zhou-she2, LI Hong2, XIN Jun1, GUO Qi-yong1
1. Department of Radiology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110004, China;2. General Electric Company Healthcare(China), Beijing 100176, China
Abstract：Objective: The [11C]N-methyl acetazolamide([11C]N-MAC), as the imaging agent, was used to study the uptake rate of liver tissue in different stages of liver fibrosis by PET/CT, and then to investigate its value in evaluating early diagnosis of liver fibrosis. Method: Twenty-six Wistar rats(male, 29 240 g weight) were included with 8 in the control group and 18 in the test group(mild liver fibrosis, S1, N=10 and severe liver fibrosis, S2+S3, N=8). Liver fibrosis was induced by thioacetamide(TAA). After PET/CT dynamic scanning with [11C]N-MAC, the mice which were alive in the second day, continued to receive inhibition test with acetazolamide. Data reconstruction was accomplished after scanning. The standard uptake value(SUV) of the liver at 5 s, 20 s, 90 s, 5 min, 10 min, 20 min, 30 min and 45 min were calculated to analyze its correlation with pathological results. Results: The SUVs at different time points(90 s, 5 min, 10 min) of the control group and test group showed significant correlation. But there was no significant correlation between different stages of liver fibrosis. There was good correlation between the SUV values in the test group and the pathological results of immunohistochemistry. The results of inhibition tests were positive for the control group and negative for the test group. With the aggravation of hepatic fibrosis, the inhibiting efficiency decreased. Conclusion: The [11C]N-MAC PET/CT is a promising tool to detect the early tendency of liver fibrosis by the level of SUV values and then to distinguish the stages of liver fibrosis.
2015, Vol. 26 
