Using 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography in detecting infectious endocarditis/endoarteritis: a preliminary report.
OBJECTIVE
We evaluated the effectiveness of positron emission tomography (PET) with 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) in the detection of infectious endocarditis/endoarteritis.


METHODS
For this study, we recruited 6 patients (4 women, 2 men; age range, 35 - 78 years; mean age, 55.8 +/- 16.8 years) who were clinically diagnosed as having infective endocarditis/endoarteritis by their echocardiographic findings and by Duke criteria.


RESULTS
For all 6 patients, we also found increased FDG uptakes in the corresponding areas detected in echocardiography.


CONCLUSIONS
FDG-PET appears to be a promising tool in diagnosing infective endocarditis/endoarteritis, and further prospective studies on a large scale to fully exploit the usefulness of FDG-PET for infective endocarditis/endoarteritis are needed.
Yen
Ruoh-Fang
RF
Department of Nuclear Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, No. 7, Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei 10016, Taiwan. rfyen@ha.mc.ntu.edu.tw
Chen
Yee-Chun
YC
Wu
Yen-Wen
YW
Pan
Mei-Hsiu
MH
Chang
Shan-Chwen
SC
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001024:Aortic Valve Stenosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001167:Arteritis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000382:microbiology; D004452:Echocardiography; D004697:Endocarditis, Bacterial / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism; D010865:Pilot Projects; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18