VISUALIZATION OF THE CERVICAL SPINAL-CORD WITH FDG AND HIGH-RESOLUTION PET

Purpose: Our aim was to evaluate the visibility of the cervical spinal cord with [F-18]2-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) and a high-resolution P ET scanner and to quantify the glucose utilization by the cervical cor d. Method: Twenty-one normal subjects and three cervical myelopathy pa tients were studied. The visibility of the cervical spinal cord in sag ittal and coronal sections was evaluated. The metabolic rate of glucos e (MRGlu) and standardized uptake value (SUV) of FDG in the cord were calculated. Results: The entire cervical spinal cord was clearly visua lized in 57% of the subjects: the upper cord in 81%, the middle cord i n 73%, and the lower cord in 57%. The MRGlu of the normal cord was 1.9 3 +/- 0.37 mg/100 g/min. SUV was constant across all the vertebral lev els and negatively correlated with subject age. In the myelopathy pati ents, the SUV of the entire cervical cord was lower than in the age-ma tched normal subjects. Conclusion: These preliminary results indicate that the cervical spinal cord can be visualized as a normal structure in routine head and neck PET imaging and that FDG-PET may provide quan titative information about spinal cord disorders.