Assessment of cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with heart failure by 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging

Mingkai Yun; Binbin Nie; Wanwan Wen; Ziwei Zhu; Hua Liu; Shaoping Nie; Rupert Lanzenberger; Yongxiang Wei; Marcus Hacker; Baoci Shan; Heinrich R Schelbert; Xiang Li; Xiaoli Zhang

doi:10.1007/s12350-020-02258-2

Assessment of cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with heart failure by ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT imaging

J Nucl Cardiol. 2022 Apr;29(2):476-488. doi: 10.1007/s12350-020-02258-2. Epub 2020 Jul 20.

Authors

Mingkai Yun^#^{1

2}, Binbin Nie^#³, Wanwan Wen^{1

2}, Ziwei Zhu^{1

2}, Hua Liu³, Shaoping Nie^{2

4}, Rupert Lanzenberger⁵, Yongxiang Wei^{1

2}, Marcus Hacker⁶, Baoci Shan³, Heinrich R Schelbert⁷, Xiang Li^{1

6}, Xiaoli Zhang^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nuclear Medicine, Laboratory for Molecular Imaging, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
² Beijing Key Laboratory of Upper Airway Dysfunction and Related Cardiovascular Diseases, Beijing, China.
³ Division of Nuclear Technology and Applications, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ Division of Emergency & Critical Care Centre, Department of Cardiology, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
⁵ Neuroimaging Labs (NIL), Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
⁶ Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
⁷ Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁸ Department of Nuclear Medicine, Laboratory for Molecular Imaging, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. xlzhang68@126.com.
⁹ Beijing Key Laboratory of Upper Airway Dysfunction and Related Cardiovascular Diseases, Beijing, China. xlzhang68@126.com.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 32691347
DOI: 10.1007/s12350-020-02258-2

Abstract

Background: To evaluate the cerebral metabolism in patients with heart failure (HF).

Methods: One hundred and two HF patients were prospectively enrolled, who underwent gated ^99mTc-sestamibi single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/CT, cardiac and cerebral ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/CT. Fifteen healthy volunteers served as controls. Patients were stratified by extent of hibernating myocardium (HM) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) into 4 groups where Group1: HM < 10% (n = 33); Group2: HM ≥ 10%, LVEF < 25% (n = 34); Group3: HM ≥ 10%, 25% ≤ LVEF ≤ 40% (n = 16) and Group 4: LVEF > 40% (n = 19). The standardized uptake value (SUV) in the whole brain (SUV_whole-brain) and the SUV ratios (SUVR) in 24 cognition-related brain regions were determined. SUV_whole-brain and SUVRs were compared between the 4 patient groups and the healthy controls.

Results: SUV_whole-brain (r = 0.245, P = 0.013) and SUVRs in frontal areas, hippocampus, and para-hippocampus (r: 0.213 to 0.308, all P < 0.05) were correlated with HM. SUV_whole-brain differed between four patient groups and the healthy volunteers (P = 0.016) and SUV_whole-brain in Group 1 was lower than that in healthy volunteers (P < 0.05). SUVRs of Group 3 in frontal areas were the highest among four patient subgroups (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: Cerebral metabolism in the whole brain was reduced but maintained in cognition-related frontal areas in HF patients with HM and moderately impaired global left ventricular function.

Keywords: 18F-FDG PET; Heart failure; heart–brain axis; hibernating myocardium.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Fluorodeoxyglucose F18*
Glucose
Heart Failure* / diagnostic imaging
Humans
Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography
Positron-Emission Tomography / methods
Stroke Volume
Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / methods
Ventricular Function, Left

Substances

Fluorodeoxyglucose F18
Glucose