Obesity and its metabolic consequences are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) utilizes glucose and free fatty acids to produce heat, thereby increasing energy expenditure. Effective evaluation of human BAT stimulators is constrained by the current standard method of assessing BAT—PET/CT—as it requires exposure to high doses of ionizing radiation. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a potential noninvasive, safe alternative, although direct corroboration with PET/CT has not been established. Methods: IRT and ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT data from 8 healthy men subjected to water-jacket cooling were directly compared. Thermal images were geometrically transformed to overlay PET/CT-derived maximum intensity projection (MIP) images from each subject, and the areas with the most intense temperature and glucose uptake within the supraclavicular regions were compared. Relationships between supraclavicular temperatures (T_SCR) from IRT and the metabolic rate of glucose uptake (MR(gluc)) from PET/CT were determined. Results: Glucose uptake on MR(gluc)_MIP was found to correlate positively with a change in T_SCR relative to a reference region (r² = 0.721; P = 0.008). Spatial overlap between areas of maximal MR(gluc)_MIP and maximal T_SCR was 29.5% ± 5.1%. Prolonged cooling, for 60 min, was associated with a further T_SCR rise, compared with cooling for 10 min. Conclusion: The supraclavicular hotspot identified on IRT closely corresponded to the area of maximal uptake on PET/CT-derived MR(gluc)_MIP images. Greater increases in relative T_SCR were associated with raised glucose uptake. IRT should now be considered a suitable method for measuring BAT activation, especially in populations for whom PET/CT is not feasible, practical, or repeatable.

肥胖及其代谢后果是发病率和死亡率的主要原因。棕色脂肪组织（BAT）利用葡萄糖和游离脂肪酸产生热量，从而增加了能量消耗。当前评估BAT的标准方法PET / CT限制了对人类BAT刺激物的有效评估，因为它需要暴露于高剂量的电离辐射中。红外热像仪（IRT）是一种潜在的无创，安全替代方法，尽管尚未建立与PET / CT的直接佐证。方法： IRT和¹⁸直接比较了8名接受水套冷却的健康男性的F-FDG PET / CT数据。对热图像进行几何变换，以叠加来自每个对象的PET / CT衍生的最大强度投影（MIP）图像，并比较锁骨上区域中温度和葡萄糖摄取最旺盛的区域。确定了IRT的锁骨上温度（T _SCR）与PET / CT的葡萄糖摄取代谢率（MR（gluc））之间的关系。结果：发现MR（gluc）_MIP上的葡萄糖摄取与T _SCR相对于参考区域的变化呈正相关（r ² = 0.721；P= 0.008）。最大MR（gluc）_MIP和最大T _SCR区域之间的空间重叠为29.5％±5.1％。与冷却10分钟相比，长时间冷却60分钟会导致T _SCR进一步升高。结论： IRT上发现的锁骨上热点与PET / CT衍生的MR（gluc）_MIP图像上的最大摄取区域紧密对应。相对T _SCR的较大增加与葡萄糖摄取增加有关。现在，IRT应该被认为是一种测量BAT活化的合适方法，尤其是在PET / CT不可行，不实用或不可重复的人群中。