title: Differentiating recurrent or residual nasopharyngeal carcinomas from post-radiotherapy changes with 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography and thallium-201 single photon emission computed tomography in patients with indeterminate computed tomography findings.
abstract: The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) and thallium-201 (Tl-201) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in differentiating recurrent/residual nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC) from post-radiotherapy (RT) changes in patients with indeterminate computed tomography (CT) findings. Twenty NPC patients with indeterminate CT findings were included at least 4 months after RT. CT, FDG-PET, Tl-201 SPECT and biopsy were performed within 1 week. The final diagnoses were based on biopsy findings and clinical follow-up for at least 6 months. For differentiating recurrent/residual NPC from post-RT changes in patients with indeterminate CT findings, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of FDG-PET were 100.0%, 92.3% and 96.0%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of Tl-201 SPECT were 91.7%, 92.3% and 92.0%, respectively. Based on this study's findings, we can conclude FDG-PET is more sensitive but equally specific as Tl-201 SPECT is differentiating recurrent/residual NPC from post-RT changes in patients with indeterminate CT findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ming-Hsui
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Wen-Sheng
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Jeffrey J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Yen-Kung
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shen-Pin
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Changlai
authors.forename: Chia-Hung
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Kao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D018365:Neoplasm, Residual; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000379:methods*; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18