Research Information System
NUCLEAR MEDICINE COMMUNICATIONS, vol.21, no.9, pp.803-810, 2000 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
The aim of this study was to assess the correlation between thallium-201 (Tl-201) uptake and proliferative activity measured using the proliferating cell nuclear antigen labelling index (PCNA-LI) in brain tumours. Twenty-nine patients with brain tumours were included in this study. Of these, seven were diagnosed with meningioma, 13 had high grade glioma (HGG) and nine had low grade glioma (LGG). A Tl-210 Single photon emission computed tomography study was performed on all patients before operation, and Tl-201 uptake index (UI) and retention index (RI) values were calculated. Cell proliferation was determined by PCNA. While all of the HGGs and meningiomas showed intense Tl-201 accumulation on visual interpretation, eight of the nine LGGs did not show accumulation of Tl-210 at the tumour site. Tl-201 UI values were 3.23+/-0.89 and 2.67+/-0.66 in HGG, 1.27+/-0.18 and 1.23+/-0.09 in LGG, and 4.35+/-1.60 and 2.52+/-0.78 in meningioma on early and delay images, respectively. There was a statistical difference between the Tl-201 UI in HGG and LGG. PCNA-LI values were 16.72+/-6.15%, 1.63+/-0.81% and 2.00+/-1.88% in HGG, LGG and meningioma, respectively. The PCNA-LI in HGG was significantly higher than in LGG and meningioma. While the correlation coefficient between the Tl-201 UI and the PCNA-LI was 0.94 in gliomas (n=22), there was no correlation in meningiomas. No statistically significant correlation was found between the RI and the PCNA-LI in gliomas. The presence of a strong positive correlation between Tl-201 uptake and PCNA-LI indicates that Tl-201 uptake can predict the proliferative activity of the glioma. ((C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins).