The purpose of this research is to determine how a person's lungs will uptake \[18F\]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), as measured with positron emission tomography (PET) scanning in young cystic fibrosis (CF) patients.
Our recent study in CF adults, supplemented by recent pre-clinical and clinical studies by our group suggests that labeled fluorodeoxyglocose-based positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) imaging may be a valuable quantitative biomarker of lung inflammation. The proposed study would validate our earlier findings, but in a younger patient population. The implications of such a test could be highly significant for both the testing of promising new anti-inflammatory agents and for patient management decisions. To capitalize on this exciting opportunity, the critical next step is to show that we can identify a cohort of young CF patients with both stable lung function and normal (or near normal) FDG-PET imaging studies. Similar patients, then, would become the subjects for a future prospective cohort study to determine if FDG-PET imaging can in fact serve as a predictor of future changes in lung function.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
DIAGNOSTIC
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
21
All subjects underwent FDG-PET and low-dose volumetric CT imaging. After completing a transmission scan, \[18F\]FDG was injected intravenously at the start of dynamic scan acquisition. Regions of interest were drawn over multiple tomographic slices to determine average whole-lung and regional lung tissue \[18F\] FDG uptake. Patlak graphical analysis was used to determine the rate of \[18F\]FDG uptake from the blood input function and lung tissue activity curves, measured as the influx constant Ki (slope of the linear regression from the Patlak plot). Corrected Ki (i.e., Ki divided by the initial volume of distribution). Lung density was calculated from the attenuation image by standard methods.
Washington University School of Medicine
St Louis, Missouri, United States
Kinetic Influx Constant (Ki)
The whole lung kinetic influx constant (Ki) is the primary outcome measure that is derived from the time-activity curves, which are generated from regions of interest placed over the whole lungs. Therefore, a single time-activity curves from each scan is used to derive the Ki.
Time frame: At the time of FDG scan, 1 to 2 hours
Sputum Neutrophil Elastase (NE) Concentration
Using established techniques, functional activity of neutrophil elastase in sputum sols were measured using methoxy-succinyl-ala-ala-pro-val-nitroanilide (Elastin Products, Owensville, MO), specific peptide chromogenic substrates of the neutrophil protease
Time frame: Sample collected within 2-hours of PET scan
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