Influence of 11C-MET PET acquisition time for differential diagnosis of human brain gliomas

Abstract

The aim of this work was to study the effect of the reduced acquisition time of PET 11C-MET examination on the quality of primary brain tumors differential diagnosis. 57 patients with histologically verified diagnoses were recruited (glioblastoma n=20, anaplastic astrocytoma n=11, diffuse astrocytoma n=11, oligodendroglioma n=9 and anaplastic oligodendroglioma n=6). The scan time was varied in the range of 2-20 min. Our study demonstrated that in the case of intravenous administration of 11C-MET simultaneously with the start of scanning, the quality of primary gliomas differential diagnosis does not depend on the scan time. Therefor it becomes possible increasing the number of patients and reducing the acquisition time. The T/N60 ratio (T/N ratio measured in the first 60 seconds after 11C-MET intravenous injection) is equally successful parameter for glioma differential diagnosis as the traditional T/N ratio.