Modeling metabolic processes in the brain in vivo

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Abstract
Positron emission tomography provides a means to measure local concentrations of positron‐emitters in brain and to reconstruct pictorial images of the distribution of isotope in the brain. This capability is useful when the isotope is confined to a defined chemical species, and its concentration when combined with other measurable variables can be used to assay a physiological or biochemical process. Common variables are concentration and/or specific activity of the precursor tracer molecule in blood or plasma, the kinetics of exchange of the precursor molecule between blood and/or plasma and tissue, and the distribution space of the tracer in the tissue. These variables must be related, usually by an equation based on a kinetic model of the process under study. An example of such a method is the 2‐deoxyglucose method which measures local rates of glucose utilization in brain. It was first developed with [14C] deoxyglucose and autoradiography in animals and has demonstrated a close relationship between local functional activity and glucose utilization in brain. It has proved useful to map regions of altered functional activity in the central nervous system in a variety of physiological and pharmacological states. By a combination of this technique with positron emission tomography and the positron‐emitting analog, [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose, the method has been adapted for use in humans.

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