title: Unrecognized renal transplants as a potential source of false-positive interpretation of FDG PET.
abstract: Renal transplantation has become an effective therapy for patients with late-stage renal disease. Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) is accepted as an important diagnostic technique in the evaluation of suspected or known malignancies or other disorders in the day-to-day practice of medicine. Because FDG is excreted from the kidneys into the urine, unrecognized renal transplants can appear as malignant lesions. Familiarity with the clinical history is a prerequisite in the correct interpretation of FDG PET images in this setting. In addition, FDG PET images should be correlated with anatomic images when such studies are available. When neither clinical history nor anatomic images are available, a combination of "abnormal" activity in the pelvis and absence of normal renal activity should raise suspicion of the existence of a renal transplant.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. zhuang@oasis.rad.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.forename: Simin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dadparvar
authors.forename: Phillip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.forename: Jian Qin
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Peeyush
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bhargava
authors.forename: Abass
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alavi
authors.forename: Hongming
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhuang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010386:Pelvic Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000378:metabolism / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000652:urine; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18