Analysis on the Diagnostic Performance of 18F-FDG PET/CT in Cervical Lymphadenopathy / 中国医学影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Purpose To assess the value of 2-(fluorine-18) fluroro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG)-PET/CT on the diagnosis of cervical lymphadenopathy.Materials and Methods FDG-PET/CT was performed in 38 patients with cervical lymphadenopathy from June 2006 to October 2008. The standard uptake value (SUV) of abdominal lymph nodes (SUVmean) and SUV of normal cervical lymph nodes (SUVneck) were measured. All malignant lymph nodes were pathologically proved.Results 35 enlarged lymph nodes detected in 30 patients demonstrated higher SUV than normal neck tissue. 7 benign lymph nodes were not visualized and 4 benign ones were visualized.The accuracy of PET/CT in indicating the malignant lymph nodes was higher than that of ultrasonography, CT and MRI (P<0.001).Conclusion PET/CT is an effective tool in differentiating malignant lymph nodes from benign ones for patitents with lymphadenopathy.