Nucl Med Mol Imaging.  2022 Feb;56(1):52-58. 10.1007/s13139-021-00723-5.

A Negative Correlation Between Blood Glucose Level and  68Ga‑DOTA‑TOC Uptake in the Pancreas Uncinate Process

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, 101 Daehak‑ro, Jongno‑gu, Seoul 03080, Republic of Korea

Abstract

Purpose
68Ga-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 68Ga-DOTA-TOC uptake in the pancreas uncinate process with blood glucose level.
Methods
68Ga-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 68Ga-DOTA-TOC injection. Patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus and patients with BGL over 200 mg/dl were excluded. 68Ga-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 68Ga-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 68Ga-DOTA-TOC uptake in the pancreas uncinate process was negatively correlated with BGL. Our results suggested that glycemia could affect physiologic uptake of 68Ga-DOTA-TOC.

Keyword

68Ga-DOTA-TOC; PET; Uncinate; Pancreatic polypeptide cell; Blood glucose level
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