Background: Acute lung injury occurs in a third of patients with smoke inhalation injury. Its clinical manifestations usually do not appear until 48-72 h after inhalation. Identifying inflammatory changes that occur in pulmonary parenchyma earlier than that could provide insight into the pathogenesis of smoke-induced acute lung injury. Furthermore, noninvasive measurement of such changes might lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment. Because glucose is the main source of energy for pulmonary inflammatory cells, the authors hypothesized that its pulmonary metabolism is increased shortly after smoke inhalation, when classic manifestations of acute lung injury are not yet expected.Methods: In five sheep, the authors induced unilateral injury with 48 breaths of cotton smoke while the contralateral lung served as control. The authors used positron emission tomography with: (1) [F-18]fluorodeoxyglucose to measure metabolic activity of pulmonary inflammatory cells; and (2) [N-13]nitrogen in saline to measure shunt and ventilation-perfusion distributions separately in the smoke-exposed and control lungs.Results: The pulmonary [F-18]fluorodeoxyglucose uptake rate was increased at 4 h after smoke inhalation (mean SD: 0.0031 +/- 0.0013 vs. 0.0026 +/- 0.0010 min(-1); P < 0.05) mainly as a result of increased glucose phosphorylation. At this stage, there was no worsening in lung aeration or shunt. However, there was a shift of perfusion toward units with lower ventilation-to-perfusion ratio (mean ratio +/- SD: 0.82 +/- 0.10 vs. 1.12 +/- 0.02; P < 0.05) and increased heterogeneity of the ventilation-perfusion distribution (mean +/- SD: 0.21 +/- 0.07 vs. 0.13 +/- 0.01; P < 0 .05).Conclusion: Using noninvasive imaging, the authors demonstrated that increased pulmonary [F-18]fluorodeoxyglucose uptake and ventilation-perfusion mismatch occur early after smoke inhalation.

Background: Anaemia occurs in 13-28% of sarcoidosis patients. It is associated with bone marrow infiltration by epitheliod granulomas in about 50% of cases, but its pathophysiology remains unclear. Objectives: It was the aim of this study to describe a series of sarcoidosis patients with and without anaemia who underwent metabolic imaging with fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose with positron emission tomography ((18)F-FDG PET). Methods: The files of 3 sarcoidosis patients who exhibited anaemia and underwent metabolic imaging with (18)F-FDG PET were reviewed in comparison with those of all sarcoidosis patients (n = 7) who underwent (18)F-FDG PET during the same period of time. Results: In the 3 cases, symptomatic anaemia was associated with bone marrow sarcoidosis as attested by (18)F-FDG PET and confirmed by bone marrow biopsy. This observation is strengthened by the lack of bone marrow hypermetabolism by PET scan in the 7 control patients. Corticosteroids dramatically improved anaemia in 2 cases which correlated with a dramatic decrease in bone marrow glucose uptake. In contrast, there was a moderate increase in haemoglobin level in the third case and no change in metabolic imaging. Conclusion: Whole-body (18)F-FDG PET imaging should be considered in sarcoidosis patients with symptomatic anaemia. It can noninvasively suggest bone marrow involvement, indicate sarcoidosis treatment and monitor its efficiency. Copyright (C) 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel