Hongming Zhuang, MD, PhD, Abass Alavi, MD and other colleagues from the Department of Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania analyzed existing data on this topic, culled from 21 articles. They presented their findings at the Society of Nuclear Medicine’s 50th Annual Meeting. “Our goal,” said Zhuang, “was to alert physicians and researchers to the possibility of using FDG PET in ways they may not have considered, therefore increasing the understanding and support of this important technology.”
The articles examined included the results of 844 FDG PET scans performed on 806 patients. The researchers divided patients into four groups: those with artificial hips or knees or other metallic hardware; those with osteomyolitis; those with soft tissue infections, fevers of unknown origin, or a severe bacterial infection called sepsis; and those with aseptic inflammation.
Analysis revealed that FDG PET had a sensitivity of 93%, a specificity of 84%, and an accuracy of 89% for cases of infection and inflammation across the 21 studies examined. FDG PET was most sensitive for aseptic disorders caused by inflammation, and most specific for osteomyolitis.
As Alavi explained, “our research clearly shows the efficacy of FDG PET in the evaluation of infectious and inflammatory processes. We believe the next critical step – which should lead to even greater accuracy – is to develop standard guidelines and establish uniform and optimal protocols for using FDG PET in this regard.”