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This article describes a method for partitioning metabolic variability found in positron emission tomography/18Ffluorodeoxyglucose studies. For the 15 subjects examined, 74.8% of the total metabolic variability could be ascribed to individual differences in global metabolic rate, whereas 15.8% of the total variability was consistent regional variation or pattern across subjects. Subsequently, the method of Q-component analysis is described for the identification of strong- and weak-pattern subjects. In addition, a standardization procedure that amplifies the observed pattern by removing systematic individual differences is described. Finally, the implications of these findings and methods for future and clinical studies are discussed.
Clark et al. (Fri,) studied this question.