The clinical usefulness of F-18 FDG coincidence PET without attenuation correction and without whole-body scanning mode in pulmonary lesions comparison with CT, MRI, and clinical findings.
OBJECTIVE
This study was undertaken to assess the clinical usefulness of fluorine-18 flurodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG) coincidence detection (CoDe) positron emission tomography (PET) of various lung lesions by comparing it with CT, MRI, and clinical findings.


METHODS
Forty-two patients with pulmonary lesions underwent CoDe PET using a dual-head gamma camera equipped with a 5/8 inch thick NaI (Tl) crystals. The patients were prepared for the study by overnight fasting. Data was acquired at approximately 1 hour after the intravenous injection of 111 to 370 MBq (3 to 10 mCi) of F-18 FDG. A spinal scan of the thorax was performed using a slip ring gantry for 30 minutes. After rebinning, routine tomographic slices were reconstructed without attenuation correction and the images were analyzed visually.


RESULTS
Pathologic diagnoses and staging were obtained at surgery in nine patients; in the remaining 33 patients, aspiration cytology was available. CoDe PET detected all 35 pathologically proved malignant lesions. In nine patients who underwent surgery, seven CoDe PET studies corresponded with pathologic staging, whereas in six of the nine patients, CT and MRI corresponded with the pathologic findings. Seven patients also had benign lesions that showed FDG uptake.


CONCLUSIONS
F-18 FDG CoDe PET was sensitive in the evaluation of lung lesions but was not specific for malignancy. F-18 FDG CoDe PET was more sensitive than CT and MRI in nodal staging in the limited number of patients studied thus far.
Kim
S
S
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.
Park
C H
CH
Han
M
M
Hwang
S
S
Lee
C
C
Pai
M
M
D000368:Aged; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D015902:Gamma Cameras; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011446:Prospective Studies; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013125:Spinal Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000556:secondary; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18