title: Clinical value of whole-body PET/CT in patients with active rheumatic diseases.
abstract: Advanced imaging techniques may enable early diagnosis and monitoring of therapy in various rheumatic diseases. To prevent irreversible tissue damage, inflammatory rheumatic disease must be diagnosed and treated in pre-clinical stages, requiring highly sensitive detection techniques. Positron emission tomography (PET) provides highly sensitive, quantitative imaging at a molecular level, revealing the important pathophysiological processes underlying inflammation. This review provides an overview of the current utility of 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET/computed tomography (CT) in patients with active rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, adult-onset Still's disease, relapsing polychondritis, immunoglobulin G4-related disease, large-vessel vasculitis, Wegener's granulomatosis, polymyositis, and dermatomyositis. We also discuss the role of FDG-PET/CT in the diagnosis and monitoring of these diseases.
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatic Diseases, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, 1-21-1, Toyama Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8655, Japan. hiroyuki_yjp2005@yahoo.co.jp
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.forename: Akio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mimori
mesh_terms: D042241:Early Diagnosis; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012216:Rheumatic Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18