The emerging role of whole-body 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in patients with sarcoidosis

• Main Authors: Silvia Taralli, Giorgio Treglia, Alessandro Giordano
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: PAGEPress Publications 2012-01-01
• Series: Italian Journal of Medicine
• Subjects: Positron emission tomography; 18F-FDG; Sarcoidosis
• Online Access: http://www.italjmed.org/index.php/ijm/article/view/56

<h4 id="absSec_1">Introduction</h4><p id="spar0005">The purpose of this article is to examine the emerging role of whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) with ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) in patients with sarcoidosis.</p><h4 id="absSec_2">Materials and methods</h4><p id="spar0010">We reviewed the literature on the use of FDG-PET in patients with sarcoidosis to identify how this technique is being applied in clinical practice.</p><h4 id="absSec_3">Results and discussion</h4><p id="spar0015">Our review shows that: 1) sarcoidosis is commonly associated with increased FDG uptake. Therefore, positive findings should be interpreted with caution when FDG-PET is being used to distinguish benign from malignant abnormalities; 2) FDG-PET seems to be a very useful molecular imaging method for staging sarcoidosis, identification of occult sites of involvement, guiding biopsy procedures, and monitoring patients’ responses to treatment; and 3) in patients with sarcoidosis, the diagnostic accuracy of FDG-PET is superior to that of ⁶⁷Ga scintigraphy.</p>