title: 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography in detecting residual/recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinomas and comparison with magnetic resonance imaging.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It is known that 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) is effective in the early detection of residual/recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC). To compare FDG-PET with the conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the detection of residual/recurrent NPC, the authors studied 67 follow-up cases of patients with NPC using both FDG-PET and MRI.
  
  
  METHODS
  From February 1997 to February 2001, 67 NPC patients (14 women, 53 men; age range, 16-67 years; mean age, 46.6 +/- 12.5 years) were recruited. Both FDG-PET and MRI of the head and neck area for each patient were performed at least 4 months (duration range, 4-70 months; mean, 14 +/- 13.5 months) after radiotherapy or radiotherapy with concurrent chemotherapy. The final diagnosis was confirmed by biopsy or clinical follow-up for at least 6 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of FDG-PET images were 100%, 93.4%, 95.5%, 87.5%, and 100%, respectively. In contrast, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, and NPV of the MRI scans were 61.9%, 43.5%, 49.3%, 33.3%, and 70.0%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of the current study suggest that FDG-PET is much more effective than MRI in detecting residual/recurrent NPC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ruoh-Fang
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Yen
authors.forename: Rey-Long
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.forename: Mei-Hsiu
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Yao-Hung
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Kou-Mou
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Louis T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Lui
authors.forename: Chia-Hung
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Kao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000175:diagnosis*; D018365:Neoplasm, Residual; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18