title: Focal uptake on 18F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography images indicates cardiac involvement of sarcoidosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the value of (18)F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography ((18)F-FDG PET) in detecting cardiac sarcoidosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-two patients with sarcoidosis and thirty controls were recruited. All subjects underwent cardiac (18)F-FDG PET after a 6 h fasting period, and subjects with sarcoidosis underwent blood testing, ECG, echocardiography, and (67)Ga and (99m)Tc-sestamibi (MIBI) scintigraphy. We classified (18)F-FDG PET images into four patterns ('none', 'diffuse', 'focal', and 'focal on diffuse') and found that all the control subjects exhibited either none (n=16) or diffuse (n=14) pattern. In contrast, fifteen subjects with sarcoidosis exhibited none, seven exhibited diffuse, eight exhibited focal, and two exhibited focal on diffuse patterns, with the prevalence of the focal and focal on diffuse patterns being significantly higher in the sarcoidosis group when compared with the control group (P<0.001). None of the 32 subjects with sarcoidosis exhibited abnormal findings on (67)Ga scintigraphy, and 4 exhibited abnormal findings on (99m)Tc-MIBI scintigraphy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Focal uptake of the heart on (18)F-FDG PET images is a characteristic feature of patients with sarcoidosis. Furthermore, (18)F-FDG PET has the potential to detect cardiac sarcoidosis that cannot be diagnosed by (67)Ga or (99m)Tc-MIBI scintigraphy.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Medicine, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8638, Japan.
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ishimaru
authors.forename: Ichizo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tsujino
authors.forename: Toshiki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takei
authors.forename: Eriko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tsukamoto
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakaue
authors.forename: Mitsunori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kamigaki
authors.forename: Naofumi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohira
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: Nagara
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tamaki
authors.forename: Masaharu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nishimura
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012507:Sarcoidosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi