Anxiety and cerebral cortical metabolism in normal persons.

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was administered to 43 normal volunteers immediately before and after a positron emission tomography (PET) procedure with [18F]-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG). High trait-anxious individuals had significantly higher state (situational) anxiety associated with the PET scan procedure than did low trait-anxious persons. State anxiety decreased significantly for all respondents following the PET scan procedure. No significant relationships between global or regional cortical metabolic rates and state anxiety were observed. The direct cortical metabolic effects of heightened anxiety in the scan setting, should they exist, are likely obscured in the normal variance of the 18F-FDG method.

Neuronal mapping of the heart with 6-[18F]fluorometaraminol.

The false neurotransmitter metaraminol labeled with fluorine-18 has been used to noninvasively assess regional adrenergic nerve density in the canine heart. Intravenous administration of 6-[18F]fluorometaraminol (FMR) results in high, selective accumulation of radioactivity in the heart; drug blocking studies with desipramine and reserpine confirm the neuronal locus of FMR. Iodine-125 labeled metaraminol, however, shows no selective accumulation in the canine heart. Positron emission tomography (PET) analyses with FMR of closed-chest dogs bearing left ventricular neuronal defects clearly delineate the region of neuronal impairment; blood perfusion in the left ventricle wall was homogeneous as determined by [13N]NH3 tomograms. The accumulation of FMR in regionally denervated dog heart correlates closely (r = 0.88) with endogenous norepinephrine concentrations. PET-generated 18F time-activity curves demonstrate marked kinetic differences between normal and denervated myocardium. FMR/PET analysis could be used to assess the heterogeneity of sympathetic innervation in human heart disease contingent on the development of FMR with sufficiently high specific activity to clearly avoid pressor activity.

Examination of assumptions for local cerebral blood flow studies in PET.

Two common assumptions made in most positron emission tomography (PET) cerebral blood flow techniques have been examined in detail. These are (1) that the blood-borne radioactivity component in the measured PET data is negligible, and (2) that differences in arrival time of the arterial bolus across the brain cause insignificant biases in the estimated cerebral blood flow (CBF) values. Biases in CBF values due to partial failure of these assumptions have been predicted by computer simulation studies and also quantitated for both dynamic and single scan PET methods using H2 15O. Both computer simulations and measured PET data indicate that these assumptions can sometimes cause significant errors in the estimated flow values. The magnitude of these errors depends on the PET technique used (dynamic or static) and on the interval of data included in the flow calculations. The bias caused when these assumptions fail can be considerably reduced by omitting approximately 40 sec of data immediately following tracer administration from the CBF calculations.