Whole-body hybrid PET with 18F-FDG in the staging of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
PET with a double-head gamma camera (hybrid PET) is a new approach to tumor imaging with 18F-FDG. This study was conducted to clarify the feasibility of whole-body FDG hybrid PET in the staging of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in comparison with PET with a dedicated camera (dedicated PET) and to compare the results of both FDG studies with those of CT and 67Ga scanning as conventional imaging studies (CIS).


METHODS
Thirty patients with NHL were prospectively evaluated. The results of the imaging studies regarding detection of the sites involved and staging were compared with each other and with those of the reference standard based on the final overall clinical evaluation.


RESULTS
Of the total of 206 sites, whole-body FDG hybrid PET and dedicated PET detected 159 sites (77.2%) and 179 sites (86.9%), respectively. Eighteen of the 20 sites missed by hybrid PET alone consisted of lesions < 1.5 cm. Both FDG studies provided concordant staging results in all but 2 patients. CIS, on the other hand, detected 164 (79.6%) of the 206 sites, 137 of which were also detected by hybrid PET. Hybrid PET detected an additional 22 sites not found by CIS, whereas CIS detected 27 additional sites. Hybrid PET and CIS provided concordant staging results in 19 patients. Hybrid PET correctly staged NHL in 5 additional patients, whereas CIS correctly staged NHL in only 1 additional patient.


CONCLUSIONS
Whole-body FDG hybrid PET appeared to be an accurate method of staging NHL. Despite its poorer image quality compared with dedicated PET, hybrid PET provided NHL staging results comparable with those of dedicated PET. Hybrid PET also yielded results comparable with those of CIS. However, whole-body FDG hybrid PET is currently inadequate as a single modality for staging NHL and is complementary to CT.
Tatsumi
M
M
Division of Tracer Kinetics, Biomedical Research Center, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
Kitayama
H
H
Sugahara
H
H
Tokita
N
N
Nakamura
H
H
Kanakura
Y
Y
Nishimura
T
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005710:Gallium Radioisotopes; D015902:Gamma Cameras; D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011446:Prospective Studies; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000295:instrumentation; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D005710:Gallium Radioisotopes; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18