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. 2017 Jul;31(6):481-485.
doi: 10.1007/s12149-017-1172-5. Epub 2017 Apr 24.

Practical calculation method to estimate the absolute boron concentration in tissues using 18F-FBPA PET

Tadashi Watabe  1   2 , Kohei Hanaoka  3 , Sadahiro Naka  4 , Yasukazu Kanai  5   6 , Hayato Ikeda  3 , Masanao Aoki  3 , Eku Shimosegawa  3   5   6 , Mitsunori Kirihata  7 , Jun Hatazawa  3   5   8
Affiliations

Practical calculation method to estimate the absolute boron concentration in tissues using 18F-FBPA PET

Tadashi Watabe et al. Ann Nucl Med. 2017 Jul.

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to establish a practical method to estimate the absolute boron concentrations in the tissues based on the standardized uptake values (SUVs) after administration of 4-borono-phenylalanine (BPA) using 4-borono-2-18F-fluoro-phenylalanine (18F-FBPA) PET.

Methods: Rat xenograft models of C6 glioma (n = 7, body weight 241 ± 28.0 g) were used for the study. PET was performed 60 min after intravenous injection of 18F-FBPA (30.5 ± 0.7 MBq). After the PET scanning, BPA-fructose (167.3 ± 18.65 mg/kg) was administered by slow intravenous injection to the same subjects. The rats were killed 60 min after the BPA injection and tissue samples were collected from the major organs and tumors. The absolute boron concentrations (unit: ppm) in the samples were measured by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The boron concentrations in the tissues/tumors were also estimated from the 18F-FBPA PET images using the following formula: estimated absolute boron concentration (ppm) = 0.0478 × [BPA dose (mg/kg)] × SUV. The measured absolute boron concentrations (mBC) by ICP-OES and the estimated boron concentrations (eBC) from the PET images were compared.

Results: The percent difference between the mBC and eBC calculated based on the SUVmax was -5.2 ± 21.1% for the blood, -9.4 ± 22.3% for the brain, 1.6 ± 21.3% for the liver, -14.3 ± 16.8% for the spleen, -9.5 ± 27.5% for the pancreas, and 3.4 ± 43.2% for the tumor. Relatively large underestimation was observed for the lung (-48.4 ± 16.2%), small intestine (-37.8 ± 19.3%) and large intestine (-33.9 ± 11.0%), due to the partial volume effect arising from the air or feces contained in these organs. In contrast, relatively large overestimation was observed for the kidney (34.3 ± 29.3%), due to the influence of the high uptake in urine.

Conclusions: The absolute boron concentrations in tissues/tumors can be estimated from the SUVs on 18F-FBPA PET using a practical formula. Caution must be exercised in interpreting the estimated boron concentrations in the lung, small intestine and large intestine, to prevent the adverse effects of overexposure, which could occur due to underestimation by partial volume effect using PET.

Keywords: Boron concentration; FBPA; Positron emission tomography.

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Conflict of interest statement

This study was funded by KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) (No. 24229008) and (A) (No. 24591758) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan.

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