Abstract
Previous PET studies with [18F]FCWAY were modeled with a 120-min kinetic analysis, using arterial input function with corrections for uptake of the metabolite [18F]fluorocyclohexanecarboxylic acid ([18F]FC) and vascular activity. We evaluated whether logistically less demanding analysis approaches can be used as alternatives to the full analysis. Dynamic frames were acquired for 120-min in 13 temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients and 10 controls, and modeled with a simplified 3-parameter 2-tissue compartment. The gold standard binding index was BPF. Images were also generated with a 90-min (BPF_90) and 60-min (BPF_60) data analysis interval, without correction for [18F]FC (BPF_NOFC) and without neither [18F]FC correction nor vascular correction (BPND_NOFCVA). fP was significantly higher in patients than in controls. BPF_NOFC had very similar statistical power as BPF, except in the raphe where the effect size of BPF_NOFC was about 40% lower than that of BPF. BPND_NOFCVA had poorest performance. Negligible loss of statistical significance in detected differences occurred in the cortex with both BPF_90 and BPF_60, but BPF_60 was associated with some time instability in the raphe. PET scans can be reduced to 90-min in future, arterial line-based, TLE studies. Lack of correction for [18F]FC mildly reduced the statistical power only in the raphe.
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