Study: FDG PET/CT imaging optimizes surgical resection
Research published in the December issue of the American Journal of Surgery has determined that 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging using becquerel has the potential to discern malignant lesions from benign tissues within both in vivo and ex vivo scans.

The use of 18F-FDG PET/CT scanning is a widely accepted preoperative tumor imaging modality. Douglas A. Murrey Jr., MD, and his colleagues at the Ohio State University in Columbus evaluated whether becquerel could be used as a quantitative PET measure in surgical specimen imaging.

In the study, 37 patients were included and 46 of the 55 PET-avid lesions identified were found to contain malignancy on histopathology. The researchers measured becquerel counts both in vivo (preoperative) and ex vivo (surgical specimen), as well as made correlations with histopathology.

When the investigators compared becquerel levels between the malignant and benign groups, they found significantly higher becquerel counts in the malignant group.

“Mean becquerel counts for the PET-avid lesions were significantly higher that the adjacent PET-nonavid areas (background) within both in vivo and ex vivo imaging,” Murrey said.

Murrey and colleagues also noted that PET-avid to PET-nonavid becquerel ratios were significantly higher with ex vivo images than with in vivo images.
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