Combined impacts of blood glucose level and glucose metabolism-related factors on liver 18F-FDG uptake

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the combined impacts of blood glucose and its related metabolic factors on 18F-FDG uptake by liver. Methods A total of 544 subjects (384 males and 160 females, age range 24-73 years) undergoing 18F-FDG PET/CT were recruited in this retrospective study. SUVmean of the right lobe of liver was calculated. Two-sample t test and one-way analysis of variance were performed to compare SUVmean between patients with different genders and BMI levels. Linear correlation analysis, partial correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were conducted to evaluate the relationship between age, injected 18F-FDG dose, blood glucose, serum T3, T4, FT3, FT4, BMR, BMI and liver SUVmean. Results The SUVmean of the liver in males and females were 1.89±0.42 and 1.92±0.38 (t=0.693, P>0.05), but it was significantly different among BMI groups (F=3.056, P<0.05). Age, blood glucose and FT3 were significantly associated with liver SUVmean (r′ values: 0.108, 0.140 and 0.105, all P<0.05) and were independent factors that indicated variation of liver SUVmean (β values: 0.006, 0.070 and 0.088, all P<0.05). Blood glucose was the strongest powerful predicting variable of liver SUVmean (β′=0.154, P<0.001). Conclusions Blood glucose and its related metabolic factors can affect the liver 18F-FDG uptake. Age, FT3, blood glucose are independent factors predicting variation of liver SUVmean. The impact of glucose metabolism status should be considered when assessing liver 18F-FDG uptake. Key words: Liver; Blood glucose; Positron-emission tomography; Tomography, X-ray computed; Deoxyglucose