RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Thermal imaging is a non-invasive alternative to PET-CT for measurement of brown adipose tissue activity in humans
JF Journal of Nuclear Medicine
JO J Nucl Med
FD Society of Nuclear Medicine
SP jnumed.117.190546
DO 10.2967/jnumed.117.190546
A1 Law, James Matthew
A1 Morris, David Edward
A1 Izzi-Engbeaya, Chioma
A1 Salem, Victoria
A1 Coello, Christopher
A1 Robinson, Lindsay
A1 Jayasinghe, Maduka
A1 Scott, Rebecca
A1 Gunn, Roger
A1 Rabiner, Eugenii
A1 Tan, Tricia
A1 Dhillo, Waljit
A1 Bloom, Stephen
A1 Budge, Helen
A1 Symonds, Michael
YR 2017
UL http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/early/2017/11/08/jnumed.117.190546.abstract
AB Background: Obesity and its metabolic consequences are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) utilises glucose and free fatty acids to produce heat, thereby increasing energy expenditure. Effective evaluation of human BAT stimulators is constrained by current standard BAT assessment methods as positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) requires exposure to high doses of ionising radiation. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a potential non-invasive, safe alternative, although direct corroboration with PET-CT has not previously been established. Methods: IRT and 18F-FDG PET-CT data from 8 healthy male participants subjected to water jacket cooling were directly compared. Thermal images (TIs) were geometrically transformed to overlay PET-CT-derived maximum intensity projection (MIP) images from each subject and the areas of greatest intensity of temperature and glucose-uptake within the supraclavicular regions compared. Relationships between supraclavicular temperatures from IRT (TSCR) and the maximum rate of glucose uptake (MR(gluc)) from PET-CT were determined. Results: Glucose uptake on MR(gluc)MIP was positively correlated with change in TSCR relative to a reference region (r2 = 0.721; P = 0.008). Spatial overlap between areas of maximal MR(gluc)MIP and maximal TSCR was 29.5±5.1%. Prolonged cooling to 60 minutes was associated with further TSCR rise compared with cooling to 10 minutes. Conclusion: The supraclavicular hotspot identified on IRT closely corresponds to the area of maximal uptake on PET-CT-derived MR(gluc)MIP images. Greater increases in relative TSCR were associated with raised glucose uptake. IRT should now be considered a suitable method for measuring BAT activation, especially in populations where PET-CT is not feasible, practical or repeatable. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/