Dear Molecular Imaging Insider,
FDG-PET has been shown to improve diagnostic accuracy and staging across a broad spectrum of oncologic and cardiac applications, however, false positives for nonmalignant chest abnormalities can be a problem for practitioners.
The increase in FDG uptake can be attributed to the heightened metabolic state of accumulated inflammatory cells, according to a team of researchers from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Pneumonia, sarcoidosis, pleural fibrosis, and caseating granulomas with active inflammation are a few of the diseases with infectious and inflammatory lesions that may mimic tumor in FDG-PET images. In addition, focal vascular uptake in the mediastinum may simulate metastatic lymph node disease.
As a Molecular Imaging Insider subscriber, you have access to this story before it’s published for the rest of our members. To read more about thoracic diseases that are FDG avid, go to http://www.auntminnie.com/default.asp?Sec=sup&Sub=mol&Pag=dis&ItemId=61339.
Finally, be sure to stop by and take a look at the recent updates in our online e-book Nuclear Medicine on the Internet, by Dr. Scott Williams of Advanced Radiology Consultants in Bridgeport, CT. You’ll find the most current information at http://www.auntminnie.com/default.asp?sec=ref&sub=ncm&pag=def&itemid=54797.
