Brain fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose imaging with dual-head coincidence gamma camera: comparison with dedicated ring-detector positron emission tomography.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Dual-head coincidence gamma camera (DHC) imaging has been proposed as an alternative to dedicated ring-detector positron emission tomography (dr-PET) for clinical fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) studies. The purpose of this investigation was to assess the quality of DHC images in FDG studies of the human brain. METHODS Seven healthy volunteers and 12 patients with various cerebral disorders underwent consecutive brain dr-PET and DHC with FDG. All sets of images were compared semiquantitatively using regions of interest. RESULTS Cortical count ratios to the cerebellum on DHC and dr-PET images did not differ significantly among the volunteers, except in the superior frontal cortex and thalamus. In all studies including those of cerebral disorders, the mean cortical-to-cerebellar ratios of DHC and dr-PET images correlated closely. CONCLUSION FDG imaging with DHC delineated the metabolic distribution of glucose in the brain as well as dr-PET did, except in the superior frontal cortex and thalamus. Therefore, DHC may be a dedicated cost-effective means of detecting metabolic abnormalities in the brain.