title: Role of 68Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT in initial evaluation of patients with suspected bronchopulmonary carcinoid.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of (68)Ga-DOTATOC positron emission tomography (PET)/CT scan in patients with suspected pulmonary carcinoid tumour and to compare its results with (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT scan.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this prospective study, 32 patients (age 34.22 ± 12.03 years; 53.1 % female) with clinical suspicion of bronchopulmonary carcinoid were evaluated with (68)Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT and (18)F-FDG PET/CT. The two imaging modalities were compared, considering the tissue diagnosis as the reference standard.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on the reference standard 26 cases were carcinoid tumours [21 typical carcinoids (TC) and 5 atypical carcinoids (AC)] and 6 cases were non-carcinoid tumours. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of (68)Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT in the diagnosis of pulmonary carcinoid tumour were 96.15, 100 and 96.87 % respectively, whereas those of (18)F-FDG PET/CT were 78.26, 11.1 and 59.37 % respectively. The maximum standardised uptake value (SUV max) of TC on (68)Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT scan ranged from 3.58 to 55, while that of AC ranged from 1.1 to 32.5. (18)F-FDG PET/CT was true-positive in all cases of AC and false-negative in eight cases of TC (sensitivity for TC 61.9 % and for AC 100 %).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  (68)Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT is a useful imaging investigation for the evaluation of pulmonary carcinoids. (18)F-FDG PET/CT scan suffers from low sensitivity and specificity in differentiating the pulmonary carcinoids from other tumours.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Balasubramanian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Venkitaraman
authors.forename: Sellam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karunanithi
authors.forename: Arvind
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Khilnani
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002276:Carcinoid Tumor / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D015282:Octreotide / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: C499142:Ga(III)-DOTATOC; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D015282:Octreotide