The time course of steroid action on blood‐to‐brain and blood‐to‐tumor transport of 82Rb: A positron emission tomographic study

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Abstract
Blood-to-brain and blood-to-tumor transport rate constants for Rb (K1) and apparent tissue blood volume (Vb) were estimated in 8 patients with primary or metastatic brain tumors before and approximately 6 hours after a 100-mg intravenous bolus injection of dexamethasone using 82Rb and positron emission tomography. Eight additional patients were studied to evaluate test-retest variability and repositioning errors. Six hours following dexamethasone administration tumor K1 (but not Vb) was significantly reduced compared with contralateral control brain regions (p < 0.03). These data are consistent with our previously published 24-hour-postdexamethasone data and suggest that comparable effects of corticosteroids on brain/tumor capillaries may be observed at 5 to 6 and 24 hours. The time course of dexamethasone-induced alterations in brain/tumor capillary permeability supports the view that these alterations may be responsible for at least some of the antiedema effects of corticosteroids.