Relationship between sex hormones levels and 18F-FDG uptake by the ovaries in premenopausal woman

Abstract

Purpose This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of sex hormones on F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake by normal ovaries.

Methods A total of 197 premenopausal women were included in this study. The degree of FDG uptake by ovaries on FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) images obtained from these subjects was correlated with the levels of sex hormones, including estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone. We also analyzed the relationship between the menstrual cycle and ovarian FDG uptake.

Results The highest ovarian FDG uptake occurred at 2 weeks from the onset of menstruation (median maximum standardized uptake value [SUVmax] = 3.40, median mean SUV [SUVmean] = 2.20), and the lowest level of ovarian FDG uptake was observed during the first week of the menstrual cycle (median SUVmax = 1.60, median SUVmean = 1.20). FDG uptake by the ovaries was weakly positively correlated with progesterone level (rho = 0.28, p < 0.001 for SUVmax, rho = 0.30, p < 0.001 for SUVmean), and this pattern was consistently observed in subjects in the follicular phase (rho = 0.29, p = 0.003 for both SUVmax and SUVmean) but not in the luteal phase.

Conclusions Glucose metabolism in the ovaries of premenopausal women evaluated by PET images tended to increase slightly with increasing progesterone concentration.