A retrospective study of the application value of 18 F-FDG PET/CT in patients with fever of unknown origin

Peng WANG; Xiaoli LAN; Yongxue ZHANG; Hongyan QI; Bangping CUI

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the application value of 18 F‐FDG PET/CT in patients with fever of unknown origin (FUO) to improve the etiological diagnosis accuracy of PET/CT in patients with FUO and provide better service for clinical prac‐tice .Methods Clinical data and imaging results of 144 cases of FUO patients diagnosed through 18 F‐FDG PET/CT examination in Wuhan union hospital from December 2009 to December 2011 were retrospectively analyzed .The final diagnoses were based on sur‐gical pathology ,aspiration cytology ,or discharge diagnosis combined with more than 12 months of follow‐up results .All the PET/CT images were analyzed and the clinical application value of PET/CT in FUO patients were evaluated through the diagnose rate , diagnose efficiency and clinical staging of malignant tumor .Results Among the 144 patients ,there were 130 cases ultimately had clear diagnosis ,which including 41 cases of malignant tumor ,89 cases of benign lesions and 14 cases the cause of unknown .PET/CT detected abnormal lesions for 97 .6% (40/41) of patients with malignant lesions and 88 .7% (79/89) of patients with benign le‐sions ,and the diagnostic sensitivity ,specificity ,accuracy ,positive predictive value ,and negative predictive value were :97 .6% (40/41) ,86 .5% (77/89) ,90% (117/130) ,76 .9% (40/52) and 98 .7% (77/78) .PET/CT detected the primary lesions for the first time in 46 .3% (19/41) patients with malignant tumor ,and detected more lesions than the traditional imaging methods in 92 .7% (38/41) of these patients .Conclusion 18 F‐FDG PET/CT imaging can provided important reference value for the detection of primary lesions ,the qualitative diagnosis of benign and malignant lesions and clinical staging of malignant lesions .