Positron-emission tomography with fluorine-18-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose for gallbladder cancer diagnosis.
BACKGROUND
Recent advances in hepatobiliary surgery have underscored the need for presurgical diagnosis of gallbladder cancer. Frequently, clinical presentation, biochemical analysis, and structural ultrasound or computed axial tomography images do not enable definitive differentiation of cholecystitis or cholethiasis from gallbladder cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of fludeoxy glucose-positron-emission tomography (FDG-PET) in establishing the benign or malignant nature of gallbladder lesions.


METHODS
A case series of 16 patients with clinical symptoms suggestive of biliary colic or chronic cholecystitis and with inconclusive ultrasound and/or computed axial tomography findings for presence of gallbladder cancer were studied by FDG-PET.


RESULTS
FDG-PET showed a sensitivity of 0.80, a specificity of 0.82, and positive and negative predictive values of 0.67 and 0.90, respectively. There was 1 false- negative result in 1 patient with mucinous adenocarcinoma and 2 false-positive results in 1 patient with tuberculoid granulomatous reaction and 1 patient with polypoid lesion with adenomyomatosis.


CONCLUSIONS
FDG-PET may be of utility to establish the diagnosis of gallbladder cancer in patients with nonspecific clinical and imaging findings.
Rodríguez-Fernández
Antonio
A
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital, Avda/ Fuerzas Armadas 2, Granada 18014, Spain. antonio.rodriguez.f.sspa@juntadeandalucia.es
Gómez-Río
Manuel
M
Llamas-Elvira
José Manuel
JM
Ortega-Lozano
Simeón
S
Ferrón-Orihuela
Jose Antonio
JA
Ramia-Angel
Jose Manuel
JM
Mansilla-Roselló
Alfonso
A
Martínez-del-Valle
María Dolores
MD
Ramos-Font
Carlos
C
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005706:Gallbladder Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18