title: The role of 18F-FDG PET/CT in the evaluation of pediatric transplant patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Intensive immunosuppressive regimens effectively reduce acute or chronic rejection in transplant patients, while these regimens can result in long term side-effects such as viral infection, fever, secondary tumor(s) etc. Our aim was to evaluate the role of 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ((18)F-FDG PET/CT) in pediatric transplant patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty one (18)F-FDG PET/CT scans in 18 patients before or after transplantation were analyzed retrospectively. One patient had PET/CT scan prior to transplantation. Seventeen patients had PET/CT scan(s) following transplantation. The PET/CT scan was used to evaluate the therapy response of post transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) in 11 patients, establish the cause of fever of unknown origin (FUO) in 5 patients, and restage in 2 patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PET/CT scan showed development in 3 PTLD patients, improvement in 4 PTLD patients, development and improvement in 1 PTLD patient, new lesions in 1 PTLD patient, and no lesions in 2 PTLD patients. The scan demonstrated the cause of FUO in 2 patients but did not demonstrate the cause of FUO in 2 patients. The PET/CT was false positive in 1 FUO patient and did not show any new lesion(s) in 2 restaging patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PET/CT may have an important role in follow-up of pediatric transplant patients. Further investigations with more patients are necessary to assess the validity of our findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Beijing Friendship Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing 100050, PR China. 13681221974@163.com.
authors.forename: Jigang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Hongming
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhuang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005335:Fever of Unknown Origin / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008232:Lymphoproliferative Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000379:methods; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D014180:Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18