The aim of the present study was to evaluate quantitation of muscle blood flow using [15O]H2O and PET.
Methods: The autoradiographic (ARG) and the steady-state methods using PET were used to measure femoral muscle blood flow. A simulation study was performed to examine the errors due to contamination of radioactivity in the blood content in muscle tissue, statistical noise and delay and the dispersion of the input curve in the ARG method. Five separate paired muscle blood flow examinations were carried out for comparison of the ARG and the steady-state techniques, including measurement of muscle blood volume in each subject. To obtain the normal range for resting muscle blood flow, additional measurements with the ARG method were performed in 16 normal subjects.
Results: When the integration time in ARG was increased to 200-300 sec, the errors due to arterial blood volume, statistical noise, delay and dispersion of the input curve were significantly reduced. Muscle blood flow values in the ARG (200 sec) and the steady-state studies were in good agreement, and each provided an estimated accuracy of 5%. Resting muscle blood flow averaged 3.12 +/- 1.55 ml/min.100 g muscle (range 1.43-6.72 ml/min.100 g muscle, n = 18).
Conclusion: The ARG and the steady-state methods provided consistent blood flow values for skeletal muscle when a long tissue integration time (> or = 200 sec) was applied in the ARG study. Based on the lower effective radiation dose and the shorter total scan duration, the ARG method is favored over the steady-state method in the measurement of muscle blood flow.