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World J Radiol. Dec 28, 2013; 5(12): 460-467
Published online Dec 28, 2013. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v5.i12.460
Published online Dec 28, 2013. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v5.i12.460
Fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in absence of CT abnormality on PET-CT: What is it?
Yiyan Liu, Nuclear Medicine Service, Department of Radiology, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103, United States
Author contributions: Liu Y solely contributed to this paper.
Correspondence to: Yiyan Liu, MD, PhD, Nuclear Medicine Service, Department of Radiology, University Hospital, H-141, 150 Bergen Street, Newark, NJ 07103, United States. liuyl@njms.rutgers.edu
Telephone: +1-973-9726022 Fax: +1-973-9726954
Received: September 17, 2013
Revised: October 29, 2013
Accepted: November 18, 2013
Published online: December 28, 2013
Revised: October 29, 2013
Accepted: November 18, 2013
Published online: December 28, 2013
Core Tip
Core tip: Abnormal focal uptake without corresponding anatomic abnormality on the integrated computer tomography (CT) imaging poses a dilemma in interpretation of whole-body fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET)-CT imaging. Most of the PET hot spots with the absence of CT lesions or abnormalities are artefactual or secondary to benign etiologies, but some may represent early staged or small sized neoplasm or metastases especially in the gastrointestinal tract and skeletons. Caution should be exercised to simply diagnose a pathology based on the presence of the uptake only, or exclude the disease based on the absence of anatomic abnormality.