Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California.
Department of Molecular Imaging, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan
J Nucl Med. 2015 Aug;56(8):1206-11. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.114.152504. Epub 2015 Jun 4.
The red nucleus (RN) is a pair of small gray matter structures located in the midbrain and involved in muscle movement and cognitive functions. This retrospective study aimed to investigate the metabolism of human RN and its correlation to other brain regions.
We developed a high-resolution semiconductor PET system to image small brain structures. Twenty patients without neurologic disorders underwent whole-brain scanning after injection of 400 MBq of (18)F-FDG. The individual brain (18)F-FDG PET images were spatially normalized to generate a surface projection map using a 3-dimensional stereotactic surface projection technique. The correlation between the RN and each voxel on the cerebral and cerebellar cortices was estimated with Pearson product-moment correlation analysis.
Both right and left RNs were visualized with higher uptake than that in the background midbrain. The maximum standardized uptake values of RN were 7.64 ± 1.92; these were higher than the values for the dentate nucleus but lower than those for the caudate nucleus, putamen, and thalamus. The voxel-by-voxel analysis demonstrated that the right RN was correlated more with ipsilateral association cortices than contralateral cortices, whereas the left RN was equally correlated with ipsilateral and contralateral cortices. The left RN showed a stronger correlation with the motor cortices and cerebellum than the right RN did.
Although nonspecific background activity around RNs might have influenced the correlation patterns, these metabolic relationships suggested that RN cooperates with association cortices and limbic areas to conduct higher brain functions.
红核（RN）是一对位于中脑的小灰色结构，参与肌肉运动和认知功能。本回顾性研究旨在研究人类 RN 的代谢及其与其他脑区的相关性。
我们开发了一种高分辨率半导体 PET 系统来对小的脑结构进行成像。二十名无神经障碍的患者在注射 400MBq 的（18）F-FDG 后接受了全脑扫描。使用三维立体定向表面投影技术，将个体脑（18）F-FDG PET 图像空间标准化，生成表面投影图。采用皮尔逊积矩相关分析来估计 RN 与大脑和小脑皮质上每个体素之间的相关性。
左右 RN 均可见摄取较高，高于背景中脑。RN 的最大标准化摄取值为 7.64 ± 1.92；高于齿状核，但低于尾状核、壳核和丘脑。体素对体素分析表明，右侧 RN 与同侧联合皮质的相关性高于对侧皮质，而左侧 RN 与同侧和对侧皮质的相关性相等。左侧 RN 与运动皮质和小脑的相关性强于右侧 RN。
尽管 RN 周围的非特异性背景活动可能影响了相关模式，但这些代谢关系表明，RN 与联合皮质和边缘区域合作进行更高的大脑功能。
