18F-fluorodeoxyglucose, being a radiolabeled glucose analogue, is a marker of
glucose metabolism indicator. Since glucose uptake is increased in malignant
tumors, its major application is in oncology. However, an increased 18F-
fluorodeoxyglucose uptake is found in various benign tumors, granulomatous
diseases, tuberculosis, inflammation, infection. A healing process may be
interpreted as a false positive finding. In contrast, some types of renal
cell cancers and lymphomas, neuroendocrine tumors, colonic mucinous
adenocarcinomata, hepatocellular carcinomas, prostate cancer, and carcinoid
tumors have low 18Ffluorodeoxyglucose avidity which may give a misleading
false negative result. In addition, an increased 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose
uptake in the bone marrow may be seen in oncologycal patients following
various types of therapy. Besides the advantages of hybrid positron emission
tomography-computed tomography imaging, this dual-modality scanning may
produce their own specific artifacts due to different causes, such as
metallic implants, respiratory motion, contrast medium and truncation. Proper
patient preparation is required to minimize the potential artifactual uptake
patterns that make reporting difficult. It is important to learn about proper
quality control, imaging and reconstruction and to be familiar with potential
artifacts and pitfalls for the accurate interpretation of
18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography.
Performance of fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography imaging for lymph node staging in bladder and upper tract urothelial carcinoma: a systematic review
