Dual time point C-11 acetate PET imaging can potentially distinguish focal nodular hyperplasia from primary hepatocellular carcinoma.
C-11 acetate positron emission tomography (PET) is known to have high sensitivity in detecting hepatocellular carcinoma. However, one of the shortcomings of C-11 acetate PET in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma is that C-11 acetate also accumulates in focal nodular hyperplasia, which makes it challenging to distinguish hepatocellular carcinoma form focal nodular hyperplasia when a conventional single time point PET imaging method is used. Two patients with suspected hepatocellular carcinoma and negative fluoro-deoxy-glucose PET scans underwent C-11 acetate PET dual time imaging in which both early and delayed images were acquired. One patient was subsequently confirmed having hepatocellular carcinoma while the other had focal nodular hyperplasia. C-11 acetate imaging was positive in both patients. Interestingly, in hepatocellular carcinoma the C-11 acetate activity in the delayed images is higher than in the early images while in focal nodular hyperplasia, the C-11 acetate activity decreased in the delayed image when compared with early images. Our findings suggest that dual time point imaging has potential to improve the diagnostic accuracy of C-11 acetate PET in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.
Department of Nuclear Medicine, PET center, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China. holly377@yahoo.com
Li
L
Huo
Zhanhong
Z
Wu
Hongming
H
Zhuang
Zhe
Z
Fu
Yonghong
Y
Dang
D000085:Acetates; D002244:Carbon; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D020518:Focal Nodular Hyperplasia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D000085:Acetates; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; C438206:carbon-11 acetate; D002244:Carbon