Wednesday, December 4 | 8:50 a.m.-9:00 a.m. | W1-SSNMMI05-6 | Room S405
A high-resolution dedicated brain PET system could augment visual reading in the early diagnosis of dementia, suggests a study in this session. The system detected significantly more amyloid plaque than conventional PET scans.
Presenter Daisuke Morimoto, PhD, of Kindai University Hospital in Osakasayama, and colleagues, aimed to verify that the system (BresTome, Shimadzu) can be used to calculate Centiloid scale (CL) values. The Centiloid scale is a standardized, semiquantitative method for measuring beta-amyloid deposits in the brain on a 100-point scale. The scale is used in trials of drugs for treating Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers noted.
The group culled F-18 flutemetamol (FMM) PET images from 45 consecutive patients with suspected early dementia or mild cognitive disorders (mean age, 72 years old) who had undergone imaging using the system in a trial between April 2023 and March 2024. Two experienced nuclear medicine specialists compared the high-resolution FMM-PET images and FMM-PET images with a resolution equivalent to a conventional PET/CT system. The images were visually interpreted as positive or negative based on amyloid deposits in the cortex, while CL values were calculated from each image and compared using paired t-tests.
According to the findings, 31 of the participants were positive and 14 were negative for amyloid deposits consistent with Alzheimer’s disease pathology, based on a visual evaluation. In the positive group, CL values of the high-resolution FMM-PET images were significantly higher than those of the conventional FMM-PET images (68.1 vs. 65.9, p < 0.001). In the negative group, there was no significant difference between CL values, they noted.
“Centiloid values procured from a high-resolution dedicated head PET system could augment visual reading in the early diagnosis of dementia,” the group concluded.
