title: Evaluation of thymic tumors with 18F-FDG PET-CT: a pictorial review.
abstract: Thymic tumors represent a broad spectrum of neoplastic disorders and pose considerable diagnostic difficulties. A non-invasive imaging study to determine the nature of thymic lesions can have significant impact on management of such tumors. 18F-flurorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) has shown promising results in characterization of thymic tumors. The objective of this article is to provide an illustrative tutorial highlighting the clinical utility of 18F-FDG PET-CT imaging in patients with thymic tumors. We have pictorially depicted the 18F-FDG PET-CT salient imaging characteristics of various thymic tumors, both epithelial and non-epithelial. Also discussed is the dynamic physiology of thymus gland which is to be kept in mind when evaluating thymic pathology on 18F-FDG PET-CT, as it can lead to interpretative pitfalls.
authors: Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors: Punit
authors: P
authors: Sharma
authors: Abhinav
authors: A
authors: Singhal
authors: Arvind
authors: A
authors: Kumar
authors: Chandrasekhar
authors: C
authors: Bal
authors: Arun
authors: A
authors: Malhotra
authors: Rakesh
authors: R
authors: Kumar
mesh_terms: D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18