Reduced thalamic 18F-flurodeoxyglucose retention in adults with neurofibromatosis type 1.

OBJECTIVE: Neurofibromatosis type1 (NF1) is associated with cognitive and motor deficits whose pathogenesis is not well understood. 18F-Flurodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) might be used to investigate putative functional correlates in the brain. METHODS: Whole-body FDG PET including the brain had been performed in 29 NF1 patients suspected for malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumours (20 females, nine males, age 31.2+/-11.8 years). Twenty-nine age-matched and sex-matched subjects without evidence of neurological/psychiatric disease in whom FDG PET had been performed for NF1-unrelated oncological indication served as controls. Individual brain FDG retention images were stereotactically normalized and scaled to a common median retention value within the brain. Scaled FDG retention was compared between the NF1 group and the control group on a voxel-by-voxel base using ANCOVA in SPM2 with the FDG uptake period as covariate. The corrected significance level alpha=0.05 was used. Voxel-based analysis was complemented by volume of interest (VOI)-based analysis using predefined standard VOIs. RESULTS: The voxel-based group comparison revealed a significant reduction of scaled FDG retention in the thalamus of the NF1 subjects within a cluster of 11.6 ml. There were no further significant effects, neither hypo-retention nor hyper-retention. Reduction of relative FDG retention in the thalamus in the NF1 subjects was confirmed by VOI analysis. The magnitude of the reduction was about 8%. CONCLUSIONS: The thalamus appears to be affected in adults with NF1. The observed magnitude of the reduction of scaled thalamic FDG retention in adults is smaller than previously reported in children. This may be consistent with a stabilization of the disease process with age.

Value of recombinant human thyrotropin in high-dose radioiodine therapy: a case report.

We report on a high-dose radioiodine therapy after injection of recombinant human thyrotropin (rhTSH) in a 61-y-old woman with compression of the spinal cord caused by metastasis of a follicular thyroid carcinoma. Fourteen years ago, the patient underwent subtotal thyroidectomy because of multinodular goiter without any histologic evidence for malignant disease, and the patient was put on thyroxine substitution (100 micro g/d). In April 2000, she developed paralysis of the right leg. Morphologic imaging revealed spinal compression caused by a space-occupying lesion within the thoracic spine. Subsequent biopsy and histology demonstrated metastasis of a follicular thyroid carcinoma. Therefore, high-dose radioiodine therapy was scheduled after 4 wk of hormone withdrawal. Within a few days of being off thyroxine, the patient's paralytic symptoms worsened rapidly. The patient was again put on thyroxine, 100 micro g/d, and high-dose radioiodine therapy under stimulation with rhTSH was performed without any side effects. The second high-dose radioiodine therapy 3 mo later, again performed under stimulation with rhTSH, showed significantly less iodine avidity, and thyroglobulin levels fell from 1,024 micro g/L to 361 micro g/L, thereby demonstrating therapeutic efficacy. Thus, rhTSH might be used as a tool not only in the diagnostic application but also in the therapeutic application of (131)I.