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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nucl Med Biol. 2012 Mar 22;39(7):926–932. doi: 10.1016/j.nucmedbio.2012.01.010

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Three-compartment model for alpha-[11C]methyl-L-tryptophan (AMT) kinetics in breast tumor tissue using first-order rate constants. The rate constant K1 (mL/g/min) represents the forward and k2 (min−1) represents the reverse combined transport of AMT across the blood vessel, interstitial space, and cell membrane into the cytoplasm, in which it comprises the free compartment (Cf). Irreversible enzymatic conversion of AMT to its metabolites and accumulation in the metabolic compartment (Cm) is characterized by the metabolic rate constant k3 (min−1). Finally, the rate constant k4 (min−1) characterizes the reverse transport of AMT metabolites across the interstitial space and blood vessel back into the blood pool. CP: plasma compartment; CT: tissue compartment.