@article {Katoh2069, author = {Chietsugu Katoh and Naoya Hattori and Katsuhiko Kasai and Keiichi Magota and Keiichiro Yoshinaga and Nagara Tamaki}, title = {Development of a new protocol to evaluate the pancreatic sympathetic nervous system using 11C-HED with 3D PET}, volume = {52}, number = {supplement 1}, pages = {2069--2069}, year = {2011}, publisher = {Society of Nuclear Medicine}, abstract = {2069 Objectives To estimate the pancreatic sympathetic nerve function using 11C- hydroxyephedrine (HED) with 3-dimensional (3D) PET, we developed a new protocol to calculate pancreatic retention index (RI). Methods Nine volunteers underwent 11C-HED PET. 220MBq of 11C-HED was infused over 1min, 3D dynamic PET study was performed for 40min covering heart. Subsequently, a whole body PET image was acquired over 10min. Venous blood was sampled, HbA1c value was measured. In the dynamic HED images, a whole myocardial ROI curve R(t) and left ventricular ROI curve LV(t) were calculated. Arterial blood curve Ca(t) was estimated using a non-linear least squared algorithm to suppress the spillover activity from the curve R(t) to the curve LV(t). Area under curve (AUC) of the Ca(t) was calculated. The pancreatic head, body and tail ROIs were set on the whole body PET mage, RI was estimated as follows; RI (/min) = ROI count in the pancreas (Bq) / AUC of Ca(t) (Bq min). Results Our method presented well correlated RI in the pancreatic head with HbA1c value (r = -0.72, p\<0.05), the pancreatic head with well functioning sympathetic nerve yielded low HBA1c value. It took no difficulty to position a ROI on the pancreatic head, while boundaries of pancreatic body and tail were relatively poor defined due to overlying activities and due to respiratory motion artifact. Analysis of variance demonstrated a significant heterogeneity (P \< 0.01) among the three regions. In particular, RI of pancreatic head ( 0.19 {\textpm} 0.06 ) was \> 30\% higher than RI of body (0.14 {\textpm} 0.04, p \< 0.05) and tail (0.15 {\textpm} 0.03, p \< 0.05), respectively. Conclusions Our new method using 11C-HED with 3D PET is able to estimate sympathetic nervous function in the pancreatic head. It is still hard to estimate the function in the pancreatic body and tail mainly due to the respiratory motion artifact. Further investigation should be performed to detect clear contour of the pancreatic body and tail to measure correct sympathetic nervous function}, issn = {0161-5505}, URL = {https://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/52/supplement_1/2069}, eprint = {https://jnm.snmjournals.org/content}, journal = {Journal of Nuclear Medicine} }