Positron emission tomography study of 11C-acetoacetate uptake in a freezing lesion in cat brain, as correlated with 11C-tyrosine and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake, and with proton magnetic resonance imaging.

Using 11C-ACAC, 11C-TYR, and 18FDG as tracers, brain uptake of these substrates was studied in cat brain with a freezing lesion, by PET, at 1 day to 3 weeks after injury. Also MRI was conducted. Although the MRI scans depicted the morphological changes, such as edema formation, the PET studies of the brain uptake of substrates visualized the pattern of changes, which in the fresh lesion was largely governed by impairment of the BBB, but in the chronic lesion they were indicative of the proliferation of reactive cells in the process of tissue repair and edema resolution.