Myocardial metabolic and perfusion imaging is a vital tool for understanding the physiologic consequences of heart failure. We used PET imaging to examine the longitudinal kinetics of 18F-FDG and 14(R,S)-18F-fluoro-6-thia-heptadecanoic acid (18F-FTHA) as analogs of glucose and fatty acid (FA) to quantify metabolic substrate shifts with the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) as a model of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and failure. Myocardial perfusion and left ventricular function were also investigated using a newly developed radiotracer 18F-fluorodihydrorotenol (18F-FDHROL). Methods Longitudinal dynamic electrocardiogram-gated small-animal PET/CT studies were performed with 8 SHR and 8 normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats over their life cycle. We determined the myocardial influx rate constant for 18F-FDG and 18F-FTHA (KiFDG and KiFTHA, respectively) and the wash-in rate constant for 18F-FDHROL (K1FDHROL). 18F-FDHROL data were also used to quantify left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and end-diastolic volume (EDV). Blood samples were drawn to independently measure plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin, and free fatty acids (FFAs). Results KiFDG and KiFTHA were higher in SHRs than WKY rats (P < 3 × 10−8 and 0.005, respectively) independent of age. A decrease in KiFDG with age was evident when models were combined (P = 0.034). The SHR exhibited higher K1FDHROL (P < 5 × 10−6) than the control, with no age-dependent trends in either model (P = 0.058). Glucose plasma concentrations were lower in SHRs than controls (P < 6 × 10−12), with an age-dependent rise for WKY rats (P < 2 × 10−5). Insulin plasma concentrations were higher in SHRs than controls (P < 3 × 10−3), with an age-dependent decrease when models were combined (P = 0.046). FFA levels were similar between models (P = 0.374), but an increase with age was evident only in SHR (P < 7 × 10−6). Conclusion The SHR exhibited alterations in myocardial substrate use at 8 mo characterized by increased glucose and FA utilizations. At 20 mo, the SHR had LVH characterized by decreased LVEF and increased EDV, while simultaneously sustaining higher glucose and similar FA utilizations (compared with WKY rats), which indicates maladaptation of energy substrates in the failing heart. Elevated K1FDHROL in the SHR may reflect elevated oxygen consumption and decreased capillary density in the hypertrophied heart. From our findings, metabolic changes appear to precede mechanical changes of LVH progression in the SHR model.

Abstract--We present construction methods and performance results for a production scintillator array of 6 4 optically isolated, 3 mm x 3 mm x 30 mm sized LSO crystals. This scintillator array has been developed for a PET detector module consisting of the 8x8 LSO array coupled on one end to a single photomultiplier tube (PMT) and on the opposite end to a 64 pixel array of silicon photodiodes (PD). The PMT provides an accurate timing pulse and initial energy discrimination, the PD identifies the crystal of interaction, the sum provides a total energy signal, and the PD/(PD+PMT) ratio determines the depth of interaction (DOI). Unlike the previous LSO array prototypes, we now glue Lumirror reflector material directly onto 4 sides of each crystal to obtain an easily manufactured, mechanically rugged array with our desired depth dependence. With 511 keV excitation, we obtain a total energy signal of 3600 electrons, pulse-height resolution of 25% fwhm, and 6-15 mm fwhm DOI resolution.

We present the tomographic images and performance measurements of the LBNL positron emission mammography (PEM) camera, a specially designed positron emission tomography (PET) camera that utilizes PET detector modules with depth of interaction measurement capability to achieve both high sensitivity and high resolution for breast cancer detection. The camera currently consists of 24 detector modules positioned as four detector banks to cover a rectangular patient port that is 8.2 6 cm 2 with a 5 cm axial extent. Each LBNL PEM detector module consists of 64 3 3 30 mm 3 LSO crystals coupled to a single photomultiplier tube (PMT) and an 8 8 silicon photodiode array (PD). The PMT provides accurate timing, the PD identifies the crystal of interaction, the sum of the PD and PMT signals (PD+PMT) provides the total energy, and the PD/(PD+PMT) ratio determines the depth of interaction. The performance of the camera has been evaluated by imaging various phantoms. The full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) spatial resolution changes slightly from 1.9 mm to 2.1 mm when measured at the center and corner of the field of the view, respectively, using a 6 ns coincidence timing window and a 300-750 keV energy window. With the same setup, the peak sensitivity of the camera is 1.83 kcps/ Ci. Index Terms-Biomedical imaging, depth of interaction (DOI), positron emission tomography (PET).

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