International consensus on the use of tau PET imaging agent 18F-flortaucipir in Alzheimer's disease

Mei Tian; A Cahid Civelek; Ignasi Carrio; Yasuyoshi Watanabe; Keon Wook Kang; Koji Murakami; Valentina Garibotto; John O Prior; Henryk Barthel; Rui Zhou; Haifeng Hou; Xiaofeng Dou; Chentao Jin; Chuantao Zuo; Hong Zhang; Molecular Imaging-based Precision Medicine Task Group of A3 (China-Japan-Korea) Foresight Program

doi:10.1007/s00259-021-05673-w

International consensus on the use of tau PET imaging agent ¹⁸F-flortaucipir in Alzheimer's disease

Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2022 Feb;49(3):895-904. doi: 10.1007/s00259-021-05673-w. Epub 2022 Jan 3.

Authors

Mei Tian^{1

2

3}, A Cahid Civelek⁴, Ignasi Carrio⁵, Yasuyoshi Watanabe⁶, Keon Wook Kang⁷, Koji Murakami⁸, Valentina Garibotto⁹, John O Prior¹⁰, Henryk Barthel¹¹, Rui Zhou¹², Haifeng Hou¹², Xiaofeng Dou¹², Chentao Jin¹², Chuantao Zuo^{13

14}, Hong Zhang^{15

16

17

18}; Molecular Imaging-based Precision Medicine Task Group of A3 (China-Japan-Korea) Foresight Program

Affiliations

¹ PET Center, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200235, China. tianmei@fudan.edu.cn.
² Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 88 Jiefang Road, Hangzhou, 310009, Zhejiang, China. tianmei@fudan.edu.cn.
³ Human Phenome Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai, 201203, China. tianmei@fudan.edu.cn.
⁴ Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA. acivele1@jhmi.edu.
⁵ Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hospital Sant Pau, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08025, Barcelona, Spain.
⁶ Laboratory for Pathophysiological and Health Science, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0047, Japan.
⁷ Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03080, South Korea.
⁸ Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Hospital, Tokyo, 113-8431, Japan.
⁹ Diagnostic Department, University Hospitals of Geneva and NIMTlab, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland.
¹¹ Department of Nuclear Medicine, Leipzig University Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany.
¹² Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 88 Jiefang Road, Hangzhou, 310009, Zhejiang, China.
¹³ PET Center, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200235, China.
¹⁴ National Center for Neurological Disorders & National Clinical Research Center for Aging and Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200040, China.
¹⁵ Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 88 Jiefang Road, Hangzhou, 310009, Zhejiang, China. hzhang21@zju.edu.cn.
¹⁶ Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Imaging of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, 310009, China. hzhang21@zju.edu.cn.
¹⁷ The College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310007, China. hzhang21@zju.edu.cn.
¹⁸ Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310007, China. hzhang21@zju.edu.cn.

Abstract

Purpose: Positron emission tomography (PET) with the first and only tau targeting radiotracer of ¹⁸F-flortaucipir approved by FDA has been increasingly used in depicting tau pathology deposition and distribution in patients with cognitive impairment. The goal of this international consensus is to help nuclear medicine practitioners procedurally perform ¹⁸F-flortaucipir PET imaging.

Method: A multidisciplinary task group formed by experts from various countries discussed and approved the consensus for ¹⁸F-flortaucipir PET imaging in Alzheimer's disease (AD), focusing on clinical scenarios, patient preparation, and administered activities, as well as image acquisition, processing, interpretation, and reporting.

Conclusion: This international consensus and practice guideline will help to promote the standardized use of ¹⁸F-flortaucipir PET in patients with AD. It will become an international standard for this purpose in clinical practice.

Keywords: 18F-flortaucipir; Alzheimer’s disease (AD); Brain imaging; Positron emission tomography (PET).

MeSH terms

Alzheimer Disease* / diagnostic imaging
Alzheimer Disease* / pathology
Carbolines
Cognitive Dysfunction* / diagnostic imaging
Cognitive Dysfunction* / pathology
Consensus
Humans
Positron-Emission Tomography / methods
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
tau Proteins

Substances

Carbolines
tau Proteins
7-(6-fluoropyridin-3-yl)-5H-pyrido(4,3-b)indole