PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Cho, Zang-Hee
AU  - Son, Young-Don
AU  - Kim, Hang-Keun
AU  - Kim, Nam-Beom
AU  - Choi, Eun-Jung
AU  - Lee, Sang-Yoon
AU  - Chi, Je-Geun
AU  - Park, Chan-Woong
AU  - Kim, Young-Bo
AU  - Ogawa, Seiji
TI  - Observation of Glucose Metabolism in the Thalamic Nuclei by Fusion PET/MRI
AID  - 10.2967/jnumed.110.081281
DP  - 2011 Mar 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 401--404
VI  - 52
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/52/3/401.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/52/3/401.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2011 Mar 01; 52
AB  - The anatomy of the thalamus and its connectivity with surrounding areas are known. Localized metabolic activities at the thalamic substructural level have not been measured in vivo in human brains because of limited resolution and contrast. Methods: The energy metabolism and fine anatomic structures of the thalamus were measured simultaneously in 5 healthy subjects using a PET/MRI fusion imaging system. Measured metabolism in individual thalamic nuclei was quantified by corresponding PET/MRI images. Results: Substructures of the thalamus were clearly distinguished in 7.0-T MRI images, and the corresponding metabolic activities measured by PET were integrated by the PET/MRI system. The medial dorsal thalamic nucleus consistently showed the highest glucose uptake among the thalamic nuclei. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that substructure-specific metabolic activities in the thalamus can be measured with a PET/MRI system consisting of an ultra-high-resolution PET component and an ultra-high-field MRI component.