Use of dynamic (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography to investigate choroid plexus function in Alzheimer's disease.

Choroid plexuses (CPs) are structures involved in CSF production and cerebral regulation and present atypical glucose metabolism. In addition, CPs impairment may be related to Alzheimer disease (AD). In the present study, we present the first results pointing out glucose metabolism in the CP with dynamic fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (dynamic (18)F-FDG-PET). We studied 47 elderly adults who were classified into three classes: healthy subjects (HS), amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and AD. All participants have undergone dynamic (18)F-FDG-PET for 45 min. Acquisitions were divided into 34 frames to extract tissue time-activity curves (TTACs) in various structures including CSF and CPs. Results showed a decreased CPs (18)F-FDG metabolism in AD compared with aMCI and HS. Conversely, dynamic uptake was higher in CSF for AD compared with the other groups. ROC analysis showed that CPs TTACs are a promising tool as it yielded sensitivity of 85.7% and a specificity of 83.3%. Our study showed a disturbance of glucose exchange at the blood-CSF barrier level which is in favour of a key-role of the CPs in AD.