Acta Radiol 1991 May;32(3):197-202
Clinical value of PET with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose and L-methyl-11C-methionine
for diagnosis of recurrent brain tumor and radiation injury.
Ogawa T, Kanno I, Shishido F, Inugami A, Higano S, Fujita H, Murakami M, Uemura
K, Yasui N, Mineura K, et al.
We studied 15 patients clinically suspected to have recurrent brain tumor or
radiation injury, using positron emission tomography (PET) with
18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG) and L-methyl-11C-methionine (11C-Met). PET with
11C-Met (Met-PET) clearly delineated the extent of recurrent brain tumor as
focal areas of increased accumulation of 11C-Met, and was useful for early
detection of recurrent brain tumor. PET with 18FDG (FDG-PET) showed focal
18FDG-hypermetabolism in one patient with malignant transformation of low grade
glioma, and demonstrated its usefulness for evaluation of malignant
transformation. 18FDG-hypometabolism was observed in all patients with radiation
injury, but was also found in one patient with recurrent malignant brain tumor.
11C-Met uptake in 3 patients with radiation injury was similar to that of the
normal cortical tissue. FDG-PET can be used to initially exclude recurrent brain
tumor which is seen as 18FDG-hypermetabolism. The combined use of Met-PET in
addition to FDG-PET can improve the accuracy of differentiation of recurrent
brain tumor with 18FDG-hypometabolism from radiation injury.
