Evaluation of Hypoxic Tissue Dynamics with 18F-FMISO PET in a Rat Model of Permanent Cerebral Ischemia

Purpose [18F]Fluoromisonidazole (18F-FMISO) is a nitroimidazole derivative that has been proposed as a positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracer to detect hypoxic tissue in vivo. This compound accumulates in hypoxic but viable tissue and may be a good candidate for evaluating the ischemic penumbra. We evaluated the time course of 18F-FMISO uptake using PET in a rat model of permanent cerebral ischemia and the correlation with histological changes.