PET Imaging Acquisition and Processing Protocols

The acquisition and processing protocols for 18F-FDG and 11C-PIB PET imaging have been described in our previous study (Zhang et al., 2017 (link); Wang et al., 2019 (link)). Briefly, PET images were acquired in the three-dimensional scanning mode on a GE Discovery LS PET/CT 710 scanner. 11C-PIB was administered intravenously at a dose of 370-555MBq, and a 90-min dynamic PET scan was performed according to a predetermined protocol. One hour after the 11C-PiB PET scan, 185-259 MBq of 18F-FDG was then injected intravenously, A 10-min static PET emission scan was performed 40 min after FDG injection with the same scanning mode. FDG PET and PiB PET images were preprocessed using MRI data for partial volume effect correction and spatial normalization. PiB PET imaging analysis was performed using Statistical Parameter Mapping 8 (SPM8) software on MATLAB 2010b for Windows (Mathworks, Natick, MA, USA) or PMOD software (version 3.7, PMOD Technologies Ltd., Zurich, Switzerland), as described in our previous study. The average of all specific regions was calculated from the PiB integral image. FDG frames for each subject were summed and normalized to mean pons activity. It is then displayed on the NIH color scale and can be windowed and viewed on three planes according to the rater’s discretion.