Regional tau deposition and glucose metabolism in patients with Alzheimer’s disease

• Published in: The Journal of nuclear medicine (1978) Vol. 59; p. 406
• Main Authors: Baghel, Vivek, Tripathi, Madhavi, Bal, Chandrasekhar, Kumar, Praveen, Pradhan, Rashmita, Yadav, Saroj, Rajeev, Kumar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Society of Nuclear Medicine 01-05-2018
• Subjects: Alzheimer's disease; Cerebellum; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Computed tomography; Cortex (parietal); Deposition; Fluorine isotopes; Frontal lobe; Glucose; Glucose metabolism; Hippocampus; Hypometabolism; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medical imaging; Metabolism; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neuroimaging; Parahippocampal gyrus; Parietal lobe; Pathology; Patients; Positron emission; Positron emission tomography; Proteins; Radioactive materials; Radioisotopes; Retention; Tau protein; Temporal cortex; Temporal lobe; Tomography; Tracers
• ISSN: 0161-5505; 1535-5667

Objectives: Recent advances in tracers targeting tau in-vivo has enabled exploration of the presence and extent of tau pathology using PET imaging. In this study, we investigated the relationships of cerebral tau deposition [F-18 Tau-AD-ML 104 PET/CT] and glucose metabolism (F-18 FDG PET/CT) with cognitive function in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Patient and Methods: Seventy subjects (including 37 with MMSE SCORE <18; 16 with MMSE SCORE =18-24 and 17 controls) were included in this study. All participants underwent neuropsychological evaluation and magnetic resonance imaging, as well as both F-18 Tau-AD-ML 104 and F-18 FDG PET/CT. Region-wise maximum standardized uptake value ratios (SUVR) at 50-60 min post-injection were calculated for F-18 Tau-AD-ML 104 and F-18 FDG, using the cerebellar cortex as the reference region. Linear models were used to investigate the association of regional F-18 Tau-AD-ML 104 retention and F-18 FDG uptake with cognition (MMSE scores). Results: F-18 Tau-AD-ML 104 retention was observed in the parietal lobe, temporal lobe, frontal lobe, hippocampus, parahippocampus, anterior and posterior cingulate regions and precuneus in advanced and early Alzheimer’s patient as compared to normal controls, while F-18 FDG PET showed regional hypometabolism in overlapping regions. Significant negative associations were found between F-18 Tau-AD-ML 104 regional retention and glucose metabolism, mainly in the parietal lobe, temporal lobe, frontal lobe, hippocampus, parahippocampus, anterior and posterior cingulate regions and precuneus in advanced and early Alzheimer’s patient as compared to normal controls. Significant positive associations were found between F-18 FDG regional uptake (precuneus) and cognition (MMSE score) in advanced and early Alzheimer’s patient as compared to controls. Likewise negative association were found between F-18 Tau-AD-ML 104 regional retention and cognition (MMSE score) in advanced and early Alzheimer’s patient as compared to controls Conclusions: Tau pathology overlapped with areas of hypometabolism on PET in the brains of AD patients. Tau deposition and hypometabolism were found to have negative and positive association with cognitive scores in these patients.