Assessment of Early Phase $^{18}{\rm F}$-FP-CIT PET as an Alternative Method of FDG PET for Voxel Based Statistical Analysis: Application for Parkinson's Disease Rat Model

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F -FP-CIT PET image was useful for diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD). Although spatial normalization step is necessary in SPM analysis, it was difficult to apply the spatial normalization on
¹⁸
F-FP-CIT PET due to the lack of reference for spatial normalization. Therefore, additional data acquisition such as MRI or FDG PET scans is needed. In this study, we developed the voxel based statistical analysis method for
¹⁸
F-FP-CIT PET using early phase of
¹⁸
F-FP-CIT.
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F-FP-CIT PET data was acquired from 7 normal and 1 PD model rat brain. Emission PET data was collected for 1 h at the start of 1 mCi of
¹⁸
F-FP-CIT. We used the early phase uptake image (from 0 to 1200 s) including perfusion phase as referential information for spatial normalization. Additionally,
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F-FDG PET was acquired as referential data to validate the substitution of
¹⁸
F-FP-CIT. To validate early phase
¹⁸
F-FP-CIT PET data for spatial normalization, correlation coefficient between early phase
¹⁸
F-FP-CIT and
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F-FDG were assessed. Using our proposed method, SPM for
¹⁸
F-FP-CIT PET was successfully implemented. Early phase
¹⁸
F-FP-CIT PET corresponding early phase and
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F-FDG PET were highly correlated. When we applied our developed method for the comparison between normal and PD, we can identify the difference of
¹⁸
F -FP-CIT between the normal and PD in the striatum (
P
<; 0.005, K > 0). The SPM method for
¹⁸
F -FP-CIT PET data could provide high localization accuracy in PD analysis. This method may be useful for assessment of PD.