TY - JOUR T1 - <sup>18</sup>F-FDG PET/MRI Can Be Used to Identify Injured Peripheral Nerves in a Model of Neuropathic Pain JF - Journal of Nuclear Medicine JO - J Nucl Med SP - 1308 LP - 1312 DO - 10.2967/jnumed.110.084731 VL - 52 IS - 8 AU - Deepak Behera AU - Kathleen E. Jacobs AU - Subrat Behera AU - Jarrett Rosenberg AU - Sandip Biswal Y1 - 2011/08/01 UR - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/52/8/1308.abstract N2 - We demonstrated increased 18F-FDG uptake in injured peripheral nerves in a model of neuropathic pain using small-animal PET/MRI. Methods: A neuropathic pain model in rats was created by spared-nerve injury of the left sciatic nerve. Sham-operated rats without nerve injury were used as a control. The presence of pain was confirmed by testing for allodynia. Sequential small-animal 18F-FDG PET and MRI scans of the thighs were obtained and coregistered. Autoradiography was performed on harvested nerves and muscle. Results: The group with spared-nerve injury showed the development of allodynia in the operated limb (P &lt; 0.001). Increased 18F-FDG uptake was observed on both PET/MRI (P &lt; 0.001) and autoradiography (P &lt; 0.005) in the operated nerve in this group. 18F-FDG uptake in the nerves correlated well with allodynia (ρ = −0.59; P &lt; 0.024). Conclusion: Animals with neuropathic pain show increased 18F-FDG uptake in the affected nerve. Small-animal PET/MRI can be effectively used to localize 18F-FDG uptake in peripheral nerves. ER -