TY - JOUR T1 - <sup>18</sup>F-FDG PET for Semiquantitative Evaluation of Acute Allograft Rejection and Immunosuppressive Therapy Efficacy in Rat Models of Liver Transplantation JF - Journal of Nuclear Medicine JO - J Nucl Med SP - 827 LP - 830 DO - 10.2967/jnumed.108.058925 VL - 50 IS - 5 AU - Atsushi B. Tsuji AU - Miwa Morita AU - Xiao-Kang Li AU - Chizuru Sogawa AU - Hitomi Sudo AU - Aya Sugyo AU - Masayuki Fujino AU - Atsushi Sugioka AU - Mitsuru Koizumi AU - Tsuneo Saga Y1 - 2009/05/01 UR - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/50/5/827.abstract N2 - Acute allograft rejection remains a major complication after liver transplantation. We report a semiquantitative imaging method of detecting acute allograft rejection with 18F-FDG PET. Methods: Syngeneic and allogeneic transplanted rats, with or without immunosuppressive treatment, were subjected to serial PET. Autoradiography of the liver was conducted in both the syngeneic and the allogeneic rats. Results: A significant increment of 18F-FDG accumulation in liver allografts was observed by PET on day 2. The 18F-FDG signal was concentrated in the area where inflammatory cells around the vessels were detected by autoradiography. Allotransplanted rats treated with an immunosuppressive agent displayed a marked decrease in hepatic 18F-FDG uptake, compared with allotransplanted rats that were not treated. Conclusion: 18F-FDG PET may be a valid method for facilitating the development of protocols to diagnose graft rejection and to monitor the efficacy of immunosuppressive therapy. ER -