Head-to-Head Comparison of 18F-Florbetaben and 18F-Flutemetamol in the Cortical and Striatal Regions

Overview

Journal J Alzheimers Dis

Publisher Sage Publications

Specialties Geriatrics
Neurology

Date 2020 Jun 1

PMID 32474468

Citations 12

Authors

Soo Hyun Cho

Yeong Sim Choe

Young Ju Kim

Hee Jin Kim

Hyemin Jang

Yeshin Kim

Si Eun Kim

Seung Joo Kim

Jun Pyo Kim

Young Hee Jung

Byeong C Kim

Samuel N Lockhart

Gill Farrar

Duk L Na

Seung Hwan Moon

Sang Won Seo

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: 18F-florbetaben (FBB) and 18F-flutemetamol (FMM) amyloid PET have been developed and approved for clinical use. It is important to understand the distinct features of these ligands to compare and correctly interpret the results of different amyloid PET studies.

Objective: We performed a head-to-head comparison of FBB and FMM to compare with regard to imaging characteristics, including dynamic range of retention, and differences in quantitative measurements between the two ligands in cortical, striatal, and white matter (WM) regions.

Methods: Paired FBB and FMM PET images were acquired in 107 participants. Correlations of FBB and FMM amyloid deposition in the cortex, striatum, and WM were investigated and compared in different reference regions (cerebellar gray matter (CG), whole cerebellum (WC), WC with brainstem (WC + B), and pons).

Results: The cortical SUVR (R2 = 0.97) and striatal SUVR (R2 = 0.95) demonstrated an excellent linear correlation between FBB and FMM using a WC as reference region. There was no difference in the cortical SUVR ratio between the two ligands (p = 0.90), but the striatal SUVR ratio was higher in FMM than in FBB (p < 0.001). Also, the effect size of differences in striatal SUVR seemed to be higher with FMM (2.61) than with FBB (2.34). These trends were similarly observed according to four different reference regions (CG, WC, WC + B, and pons).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that FMM might be better than FBB to detect amyloid burden in the striatum, although both ligands are comparable for imaging AD pathology in vivo.

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Kim J, Choe Y, Park Y, Kim Y, Kim J, Jang H Front Aging Neurosci. 2023; 15:1124445.

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