The deoxyglucose method for the measurement of local glucose utilization and the mapping of local functional activity in the central nervous system.

Publisher Summary The deoxyglucose method provides the means to determine quantitatively the rates of glucose utilization simultaneously in all structural and functional components of the central nervous system and to display them pictorially superimposed on the anatomical structures in which they occur. This method makes it possible to identify all structures with increased or decreased functional activity in various physiological, pharmacological, and physiopathological states because of the close relationship between local functional activity and energy metabolism. The images provided by the deoxyglucose method resemble histological sections of nervous tissue. Therefore, this method is sometimes misconstrued to be a neuroanatomical method and contrasted with physiological methods, such as electrophysiological recording. This classification obscures the most significant and unique feature of the method. The images are not of structure but of a dynamic biochemical process, glucose utilization, which is as physiological as electrical activity. In most situations, changes in functional activity result in changes in energy metabolism, and the images can be used to visualize and identify the sites of an altered activity. The images are analogous to infrared maps; the images record quantitatively the rates of a kinetic process and display them pictorially exactly where they exist.