Effects of plasma glucose levels on regional cerebral 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake: Implications for dementia evaluation with brain PET imaging

Abstract Purpose Hyperglycemia affects FDG uptake in the brain, potentially emulating Alzheimer’s disease in normal individuals. This study investigates global and regional cerebral FDG uptake as a function of plasma glucose in a cohort of patients. Methods 120 consecutive male patients with FDG PET/CT for initial oncologic staging (July–Dec 2015) were reviewed. Patients with dementia, cerebrovascular accident, structural brain lesion, prior oncology treatment or high metabolic tumor burden (recently shown affecting brain FDG uptake) were excluded. 53 (24 nondiabetic) eligible patients (age 65.7 ± 2.8 mean ± SE) were analyzed with parametric computer software, MIMneuro™. Regional Z-scores were evaluated as a function of plasma glucose and age using multi variable linear mixed effects models with false discovery analysis adjusting for multiple comparisons. If the regression slope was significantly (p  Results There was a negative inverse relationship (p  Conclusions Cortical variation in FDG uptake were identified when subjects were hyperglycemic. However, these variations didn’t fit a particular pattern of dementia and the severity of the affect is not likely to alter clinical interpretation.