Efficacy of 18F-FDG PET/CT in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant solitary pulmonary nodules / 中华核医学与分子影像杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze the value of maximum standardized uptake value (SUV max) of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT in differentiating the malignant solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN) from benign ones. Methods:18F-FDG PET/CT imaging data of 84 patients (39 males, 45 females; age 34-81(average 61.1) years) with SPN in the First People′s Hospital of Lianyungang between September 2017 and June 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The pathological results were taken as the gold standard. Differences of SUV max between benign and malignant SPN were analyzed with Mann-Whitney U test, and the best cut-off value for the diagnosis of benign and malignant SPN was measured by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The diagnostic efficacy was analyzed based on SUV max. Results:The pathological results confirmed 54 patients with malignant SPN, and 30 patients with benign SPN. SUV max of malignant group was significantly higher than that of benign group (5.48±4.08 vs 1.70(0.73, 3.33); U=443.50, P=0.001). The 84 SPN included 58 solid SPN and 26 subsolid SPN. SUV max of malignant subsolid SPN and benign ones were not significantly different ( U=56.00, P>0.05). The diagnostic value of SUV max in 58 cases of solid nodules were analyzed based on ROC curves, and the optimal cut-off value was 1.85. The corresponding diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, negative predictive value and positive predictive value were 97.06%(33/34), 62.50%(15/24), 82.76%(48/58), 15/16, 78.57%(33/42), respectively. Conclusions:18F-FDG uptake of malignant SPN were higher than benign ones. The diagnosis of benign and malignant solid SPNs based on SUV max 1.85 has high sensitivity, negative predictive value and accuracy. SUV max has limited diagnostic value on subsolid SPN.