Assessment of regional pulmonary blood flow using 68Ga-DOTA PET

Abstract

BackgroundIn vivo determination of regional pulmonary blood flow (PBF) is a valuable tool for the evaluation of many lung diseases. In this study, the use of 68Ga-DOTA PET for the in vivo quantitative determination of regional PBF is proposed. This methodology was implemented and tested in healthy pigs and validated using fluorescent microspheres. The study was performed on young large white pigs (n = 4). To assess the reproducibility and consistency of the method, three PET scans were obtained for each animal. Each radiotracer injection was performed simultaneously to the injection of fluorescent microspheres. PBF images were generated applying a two-compartment exchange model over the dynamic PET images. PET and microspheres values were compared by regression analysis and Bland–Altman plot.ResultsThe capability of the proposed technique to produce 3D regional PBF images was demonstrated. The correlation evaluation between 68Ga-DOTA PET and microspheres showed a good and significant correlation (r = 0.74, P < 0.001).ConclusionsAssessment of PBF with the proposed technique allows combining the high quantitative accuracy of PET imaging with the use of 68Ga/68Ge generators. Thus, 68Ga-DOTA PET emerges as a potential inexpensive method for measuring PBF in clinical settings with an extended use.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13550-017-0259-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Explicit measurement of multi-tracer arterial input function for PET imaging using blood sampling spectroscopy

“…In order to obtain the free 68 Ga-DOTA concentration in the plasma C p,Ga (t), hematocrit (H), and free metabolite fraction (b) must be used. These values have been previously determined [14]. On the other hand, 18 FDG concentration in the plasma for myocardial tissue has already been described [18].…”

“…In addition, clinically promising isotopes like 68 Ga [8], which has a very low branching ratio for the extra gamma photons, can be combined with other regular isotopes like 18 F. The proposed methodology was implemented and validated in pigs by a combination of two tracers for cardiac PET imaging, namely 68 Ga-DOTA and 18 FDG. While 18 FDG is a very well-known tracer used in myocardial viability studies among other cardiac applications [9], 68 Ga-DOTA has been recently proposed as a new PET tracer for MBF and extracellular volume fraction (ECV) determination [10][11][12][13] as well as for pulmonary blood flow [14].…”

Pancreatic GLP-1r binding potential is reduced in insulin-resistant pigs

“…68 Ga-DOTA was synthesized using a custom-made cassette adapted for a Scintomics radioactive synthesizer. The synthesis process was adapted from Velasco et al 29 and Autio et al 30 and incorporated a software trigger associated with a radioactive sensor to discard early and late elution segments of the 68 Ga generator. The final product was analyzed for radionuclide purity by iTLC using a linear radioactivity reader (Scan-RAM; LabLogic, UK).…”

68Ga-DOTA chelate, a novel imaging agent for assessment of myocardial perfusion and infarction detection in a rodent model

“…10 Gallium-68-labeled 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-N 0 ,N 00 ,N 000 ,N 0000 -tetraacetic acid ( 68 Ga-DOTA) chelate has similar kinetics to the Gd-DOTA used in MRI, 11 and is feasible for imaging of blood flow. 12,13 Our research group found evidence that imaging of increased accumulation of 68 Ga-DOTA PET may be useful for detecting conditions associated with increased blood flow and vascular permeability, such as adenosine-induced increase in myocardial perfusion and inflammatory lesions. 12 This novel approach to PET perfusion imaging is generator-based and provides an opportunity for imaging centers distant to a radiochemistry unit to detect and quantify blood flow.…”