Assessment of skull base involvement in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: comparisons of single-photon emission tomography with planar bone scintigraphy and X-ray computed tomography.
The diagnostic contribution of single-photon emission tomography (SPET) to the detection of bone lesions of the skull base was explored in 200 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Comparison of SPET with planar bone scintigraphy showed that SPET improved the contrast and better defined the lesions in 107 out of the 200 patients. Comparison of SPET with X-ray computed tomography (CT) showed that SPET did not miss the lesions detected by CT while CT missed 49% of the lesions detected by SPET. The only false-positive lesion with SPET was detected in the mastoid bone. SPET detected skull base lesions in all of the 35 patients with cranial nerve involvement, while CT missed eight and planar bone scintigraphy missed four. The findings suggest that SPET should be included in the routine check-up examinations of patients with NPC.
Lee
C H
CH
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung Medical College, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Wang
P W
PW
Chen
H Y
HY
Lui
C C
CC
Su
C Y
CY
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012888:Skull Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000556:secondary*; D013669:Technetium Tc 99m Medronate; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D013669:Technetium Tc 99m Medronate