Abstract
Purpose
68 Ga-DOTA-TOC uptake in the pancreas uncinate process is often found due to physiologic expression of somatostatin receptors (SSTR). We investigated the association of physiologic 68 Ga-DOTA-TOC uptake in the pancreas uncinate process with blood glucose level.
Methods
68 Ga-DOTA-TOC PET scans acquired from 44 patients (male:female = 20:24, age = 50.8 ± 14.8y [mean ± SD]) were retrospectively analyzed. The blood glucose level (BGL) was examined before 68 Ga-DOTA-TOC injection. Patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus and patients with BGL over 200 mg/dl were excluded. 68 Ga-DOTA-TOC uptake was measured by the maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmax). Additionally, SSTR-positive volume (SV) in the pancreas uncinate process was measured with two different thresholds: by SUV cutoff of 2.5 (SV2.5) and 40% of SUVmax (SV40%). These measurements on 68 Ga-DOTA-TOC PET were correlated with BGL.
Results
The mean of SUVmax of the pancreas uncinate process was 6.51 ± 2.04. SV2.5 was 17.81 ± 7.14 cm3, and SV40% was 18.20 ± 8.83 cm3. A significant negative correlation was found between SUVmax of the pancreas uncinate process and BGL (r = -0.37, p = 0.01). The ratio between SUVmax of the pancreas uncinate process and SUVmean of the pancreas body also showed a significance negative correlation with BGL (r = -0.40, p = 0.01). SV2.5 (r = 0.27, p = 0.07) and SV40% (r = -0.151, p = 0.32) were not significantly correlated with BGL.
Conclusion
Physiologic 68 Ga-DOTA-TOC uptake in the pancreas uncinate process was negatively correlated with BGL. Our results suggested that glycemia could affect physiologic uptake of 68 Ga-DOTA-TOC.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Korea Medical Device Development Fund grant funded by the Korea government (the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Health & Welfare, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety) (Project Number: 202011A06).
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The study was designed by Dongkyu Oh and Hongyoon Choi. Material preparation and data collection and analysis were performed by Dongkyu Oh, Hongyoon Choi, and Jin Chul Paeng. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Dongkyu Oh. Review, editing and supervision were performed by Keon Wook Kang and Gi Jeong Cheon. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Dongkyu Oh, Hongyoon Choi, Jin Chul Paeng, Keon Wook Kang, and Gi Jeong Cheon declare no conflict of interest.
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The study design of the retrospective analysis and exemption of informed consent were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Seoul National University Hospital (2108–072-1244). All procedures followed were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2013. The institutional review board waived the need to obtain informed consent.
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The institutional review board waived the need to obtain informed consent because of the anonymity and the retrospective nature of the study.
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Oh, D., Choi, H., Paeng, J.C. et al. A Negative Correlation Between Blood Glucose Level and 68 Ga-DOTA-TOC Uptake in the Pancreas Uncinate Process. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 56, 52–58 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-021-00723-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-021-00723-5