Applications of PET in Diabetes Research

Use of positron emission tomography (PET) combined with ¹⁸F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (¹⁸FDG) allows a noninvasive quantitation of glucose uptake in individual tissues such as human muscles and heart. Using ¹⁵O-labelled water and ¹⁸FDG the role of blood flow as a regulator of glucose metabolism can be studied with PET. PET has allowed study of the factors regulating heart glucose uptake in normal subjects and in subjects with alterations in skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity, and has provided evidence that insulin stimulated rates of blood flow and glucose uptake do not co-localize within muscle tissues.