title: Extracardiac abnormalities on rubidium-82 cardiac positron emission tomography/computed tomography.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The role of rubidium-82 (Rb) in recognizing extracardiac diseases is minimally investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency and incremental added value of extracardiac findings on Rb cardiac positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included all consecutive patients who were referred from July 2008 to June 2010 for Rb cardiac PET/CT to our institution. A blinded reader reviewed the images retrospectively to assess abnormal extracardiac PET findings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Images of 406 patients (142 men; 264 women) with a mean age±standard deviation of 59.72±12.93 years (range: 18-91 years) were reviewed. Incidental extracardiac abnormalities were found in 67 of 406 patients (16.5%). Among them, eight patients had malignant etiologies (1.9%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Incidental extracardiac findings were present in a significant portion of patients undergoing Rb cardiac PET/CT studies. Although most of the extracardiac findings on Rb cardiac PET/CT studies represented clinically known pathologies, these incidental findings on routine Rb cardiac PET/CT scans may have a significant clinical impact on a small number of patients, and offer the referring physician the chance to obtain additional clinically relevant information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Division of Nuclear Medicine, University of North Carolina, School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. mirpour@razi.tums.ac.ir
authors.forename: Sahar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mirpour
authors.forename: Amir H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Khandani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D033162:Incidental Findings; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012413:Rubidium; D012414:Rubidium Radioisotopes; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013896:Thoracic Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D012414:Rubidium Radioisotopes; D012413:Rubidium