title: Pretreatment evaluation of distant-site status in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: accuracy of whole-body MRI at 3-Tesla and FDG-PET-CT.
abstract: We sought to prospectively evaluate the accuracy of 3.0-Tesla whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WB-MRI) and integrated fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) (FDG-PETCT), and their combined interpretation for the assessment of distant-site status in 150 patients with untreated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Eighteen (12%) patients were diagnosed as having distant malignancies (15 patients had distant metastases, and three distant synchronous tumours). On a patient-based analysis, WB-MRI and FDG-PET-CT showed similar sensitivity (77.8% vs 72.2%, P>0.999), specificity (98.5% vs 97.7%, P > 0.999) and diagnostic capability (0.905 vs 0.878, P = 0.669). Combined interpretation of WB-MRI and FDGPET-CT showed no significant benefit over either technique alone. In conclusion, 3.0-Tesla WB-MRI is a feasible, non-ionising technique that showed similar diagnostic capacity to FDG-PET-CT in assessing distant-site status in patients with untreated NPC and can be recommended as the first-line imaging technique for comprehensive evaluation of such patients.
authors: Molecular Imaging Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan. shng6@ms25.hinet.net
authors: Shu-Hang
authors: SH
authors: Ng
authors: Sheng-Chieh
authors: SC
authors: Chan
authors: Tzu-Chen
authors: TC
authors: Yen
authors: Joseph Tung-Chieh
authors: JT
authors: Chang
authors: Chun-Ta
authors: CT
authors: Liao
authors: Sheung-Fat
authors: SF
authors: Ko
authors: Hung-Ming
authors: HM
authors: Wang
authors: Yau-Yau
authors: YY
authors: Wai
authors: Jiun-Jie
authors: JJ
authors: Wang
authors: Min-Chi
authors: MC
authors: Chen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D011300:Preoperative Care; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013382:Subtraction Technique; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D051598:Whole Body Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18