title: Clinical usefulness of 18F-FDG PET-CT for patients with gallbladder cancer and cholangiocarcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Reports concerning the clinical usefulness of (18)F 2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D: -glucose integrated positron emission and computed tomography ((18)F-FDG PET-CT) for patients with gallbladder cancer and cholangiocarcinoma are relatively scarce. The purpose of this study was to assess the diagnostic value of PET-CT in relation to a conventional imaging modality, multidetector row CT (MDCT), for patients with gallbladder cancer and cholangiocarcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ninety-nine patients with suspected gallbladder cancer and cholangiocarcinoma who underwent both PET-CT and MDCT for initial staging were included in our study. The results of these two imaging modalities for evaluating primary tumors, regional lymph nodes and distant metastases were compared with the final diagnoses based on pathological or clinical findings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A maximum standardized uptake value (SUV(max)) of 3.65 was found to be the best cutoff value for detecting a malignant tumor. The overall values for the sensitivities, specificities, positive predictive values (PPVs), negative predictive values (NPVs) and the accuracies of PET-CT and MDCT for the detection of a primary tumor were 90.2, 70.6, 93.7, 60.0, 86.9% and 84.2, 70.6, 93.2, 48.0, 81.8%, respectively. PET-CT demonstrated no significant advantage over MDCT for the diagnosis of a primary tumor. PET-CT showed a significantly higher PPV (94.1 vs. 77.5%, P = 0.04) than that found for MDCT in the diagnosis of regional lymph node metastasis. Additionally, PET-CT showed a significantly higher sensitivity (94.7 vs. 63.2%, P = 0.02) than that found for MDCT in the diagnosis of distant metastasis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PET-CT is valuable for detecting regional lymph node involvement and unsuspected distant metastases that are not diagnosed by MDCT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Seung Won
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hong Joo
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jung Ho
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Dong Il
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Yong Kyun
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Chong Il
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.forename: Woo Kyu
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.forename: Byung Ik
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001650:Bile Duct Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001653:Bile Ducts, Intrahepatic; D018281:Cholangiocarcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005706:Gallbladder Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18