Detection of lung cancer with positron coincidence gamma camera using fluorodeoxyglucose in comparison with dedicated PET.
OBJECTIVE
Dual-head gamma cameras with sodium iodide (NaI) detectors operated in coincidence mode provide a new approach for imaging with positron-labeled tracers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of FDG imaging with positron coincidence detection gamma camera (PCD) in detecting lung tumor in comparison with FDG imaging with the dedicated positron emission tomography (PET).


METHODS
Twenty-six lesions of 13 patients with suspected lung cancer were studied with both FDG PET and FDG PCD on the same day. Pulmonary lesions were analyzed visually and semi-quantitatively using the ratio of target-to-background counts (T/B ratio).


CONCLUSIONS
FDG PCD and FDG PET could detect visually 21 lesions (80.8%) and 23 lesions (88.0%), respectively. The mean T/B ratio and standard deviation (S.D.) of FDG PCD was 4.6 +/- 3.9, significantly lower than that of FDG PET (11.4 +/- 6.6, P<0.001). When pulmonary lesions were no more than 2.0 cm in diameter, the sensitivity of FDG PCD was 37.5%, significantly inferior to that of FDG PET (62.5%, P<0.001). There was no statistically significant difference of the sensitivity between the FDG PCD and FDG PET in lesions of more than 2.0 cm in diameter. FDG PCD with uniform attenuation correction was clinically available in detecting lung cancer. However, the sensitivity for small lesions less than 2.0 cm was limited. The application of measured attenuation correction and scatter correction may to be needed to improve the detectability of FDG PCD, especially for detecting small lung cancer.
Zhang
Hong
H
Department of Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Radiology, Gunma University School of Medicine, 3-39-22 Showa-machi, Maebashi, 371-8511 Gunma, Japan. zhang@med.gunma-u.ac.jp
Tian
Mei
M
Oriuchi
Noboru
N
Higuchi
Tetsuya
T
Tanada
Shuji
S
Endo
Keigo
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004583:Electrons; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D015902:Gamma Cameras; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18