Exploratory Clinical Investigation of (4<i>S</i>)-4-(3-¹⁸F-Fluoropropyl)-<small>l</small>-Glutamate PET of Inflammatory and Infectious Lesions

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<P>We explored system x(C)(-) transporter activity and the detection of inflammatory or infectious lesions using (4S)4-(3-F-18-fluoropropyl)-L-glutamate (F-18-FSPG) PET. Methods: In 10 patients with various inflammatory or infectious diseases, as many as 5 of the largest lesions were selected as reference lesions. F-18-FSPG images were assessed visually and quantitatively. Expression levels of xCT, CD44, and surface markers of inflammatory cells were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Results: F-18-FSPG PET detected all reference lesions. F-18-FSPG uptake in sarcoidosis was significantly higher than that in nonsarcoidosis. The lesion-to-blood-pool SUV ratio for F-18-FSPG was comparable to that for F-18-FDG in sarcoidosis. In nonsarcoidosis, however, it was significantly lower. In 5 patients with available tissue samples, the SUVmax for F-18-FSPG and CD163 were negatively correlated (p = -0.872, P = 0.054). Conclusion: F-18-FSPG PET may detect inflammatory lesions when activated macrophages or monocytes are present, such as in sarcoidosis.</P>