PET Assessment of Brown Fat

Maarten L Donswijk; Henny S Broekhuizen-de Gast; Drew A Torigian; Abass Alavi; Thomas C Kwee; Marnix G E H Lam

doi:10.1016/j.cpet.2011.04.005

PET Assessment of Brown Fat

PET Clin. 2011 Jul;6(3):365-75. doi: 10.1016/j.cpet.2011.04.005. Epub 2011 Jun 14.

Authors

Maarten L Donswijk¹, Henny S Broekhuizen-de Gast¹, Drew A Torigian², Abass Alavi², Thomas C Kwee¹, Marnix G E H Lam¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Center Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 CX Utrecht, The Netherlands.
² Department of Radiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.

PMID: 27156729
DOI: 10.1016/j.cpet.2011.04.005

Abstract

Brown fat is present and metabolically active in adults, and is involved in physiologic and pathologic processes. Brown fat activation can seriously interfere with correct [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose-PET image interpretation if not recognized, although this can be overcome through identification of typical uptake patterns, pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions to reduce brown fat uptake, and hybrid PET/computed tomography and PET/magnetic resonance imaging technologies. Advanced quantitative PET imaging techniques may be used to quantify total brown fat volume and metabolic activity for assessment prior to and following various interventions, likely contributing to further understanding of brown fat.