Evaluation of effect of mobile phone radiation on cerebral glucose metabolism using (18)F-FDG PET / CT imaging

Objective To analyze the effect of mobile phone radiation on regional cerebral glucose metabolism using 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging. Methods Twenty volunteers (13 males, 7 females; average age (31.6±7.6) years) were recruited in this study and randomly divided into control group (n=10) and experimental group (n=10) using random number table method. The control group included blank (C1) subgroup and simulate communication (C2) subgroup, and the experimental group included 30 min communication (E1) subgroup and 60 min communication (E2) subgroup. Simulate or experimental communication started 2-5 min before intravenous injection of 18F-FDG and brain PET/CT images were acquired 60 min after the injection. The SUVmax, SUVmean of bilateral frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital cortices were measured. Differences of glucose metabolism were compared using two-sample t test or paired t test, one-way analysis of variance. Results The glucose metabolism of left frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital cortices in control group was not significantly different from that of the right cortices (t: -1.933 to -0.216, all P>0.05). The SUVmean of right temporal cortex in E1 and E2 subgroups were 8.89±0.11, 9.04±0.14, respectively, which were statistically higher than those of the left temporal lobe (8.32±0.42, 8.62±0.50; t=-2.924, -2.641, both P 0.05). Conclusion The adjacent cerebral glucose metabolism can be increased by long-term mobile phone radiation, and this influence is increased with the extension of exposure time. Key words: Brain; Radiation; Cellular phone; Tomography, emission-computed; Tomography, X-ray computed; Deoxyglucose