Abstract
A new β-microprobe (βP) has been used to locally measure the time–concentration curve of a radiolabeled substance. The βP, analogous to positron emission tomography methodology, is useful for in vivo animal studies because it can acquire time–concentration curves with high temporal and spatial resolution. Using [
18
F]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose and βP, we evaluated the reliability of the biologic parameters and we compared this method with the [
14
C]2-deoxy-d-glucose autoradiography. βP time–concentration curves in three regions of the brain were obtained from 24 rats. Four kinetic parameters (K
1
-k
4
) were estimated from 60-minute experimental periods using a three-compartment model. Best fits were obtained when the vascular fraction (F
v
) was estimated simultaneously with the four kinetic parameters (K
1
-k
4
). The mean estimated F
v
values were about 5.5% for the frontal cortex regions and 8.0% for the cerebellum. Correlation coefficients higher than 0.830 were observed between regional cerebral metabolic rates for glucose (rCMRglc) values obtained by βP and autoradiography. In addition, the βP-derived input function was similar to that obtained by manual sampling. Our findings show that reliable rCMRglc values can be obtained using βP.