PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ali Bonab
AU  - Antonia Vitalo
AU  - Donald McLaren
AU  - Kasie Paul
AU  - John Levine
AU  - Samuel Levine
AU  - Alan Fischman
TI  - <sup>18</sup>FDG Rat brain atlas and comparison of brain FDG uptake after burn injury
DP  - 2011 May 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 1173--1173
VI  - 52
IP  - supplement 1
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/52/supplement_1/1173.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/52/supplement_1/1173.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2011 May 01; 52
AB  - 1173 Objectives MicroPET imaging makes it possible to detect functional changes in Rodent models. However, group comparisons require manual ROI or an atlas. Thus, we transformed microPET brain images to a common atlas (Paxino Rat atlas). This method will improve the sensitivity for detecting small changes in Rat brain FDG uptake. Methods Six normal adults Sprague Dawley rats and six burned rats were imaged with,18FDG using a Siemens P4 microPET. Each Rat was injected with ~0.8mCi of 18FDG and put in a stereotaxic rat head holder and imaged for 10 min, 45 min post injection, Transmission was performed using a 5mCi rotating point source of 57CO for 10 min. The images were reconstructed with MAP reconstruction in a 256x256 matrix. Images were corrected for delay, attenuation, scatter and dead time. For the normal rats uptake were intensity normalized to brain global mean and spatially normalized to each other and subsequently to the Paxinos T2 MRI atlas template using SPM8. Results This process produced a high quality FDG atlas of the rat brain. As demonstrated by previous autoradiographic and bio-distribution studies the over all pattern of uptake was uniform. In burned animals, we found reduced glucose metabolism compared to controls. Conclusions We have developed a method for transforming the rat brain FDG images to a standard space resulting in voxel-wise maps of glucose metabolism that can be compared across animals. Using this atlas atlas, changes in glucose metabolism in burned and under other experimental conditions can be investigated. Research Support Shriners Hospital for Children, Bosto