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This Article Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Crook, D. Articles by Prior, J. PubMed Articles by Crook, D. Articles by Prior, J.

Incidental findings at dedicated cardiac PET/CT

¹ Nuclear Medicine; ² Radiology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

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Objectives: Recent reports suggest that incidental extracardiac findings may be underappreciated at cardiac CT. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency and nature of these findings at dedicated cardiac PET/CT.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 49 dedicated cardiac PET/CT studies for previously unknown extracardiac findings at low-dose CT, used for attenuation correction (140keV, 10mA), in 28 patients (mean age 61y) referred for evaluation of myocardial viability and 21 healthy volunteers (mean age 27y) recruited for a myocardial blood flow study. Incidental findings were classified as benign with a low probability of clinical relevance (e.g. degenerative disk disease), possibly relevant and meriting clinical correlation (e.g. signs of congestive heart failure), or suspicious and requiring further investigations (e.g. non-calcified pulmonary nodules 5mm).

Results: Incidental findings deemed suspicious or necessitating further investigations were discovered in 11 patients (39%, 11 lesions) and 1 volunteer (5%, 1 lesion). Findings were considered to be of possible clinical relevance in 17 patients (61%, 24 lesions) and 3 volunteers (14%, 3 lesions). Clearly benign lesions were described in 19 patients (68%, 26 lesions) and 4 volunteers (19%, 4 lesions).

Conclusions: At cardiac PET/CT, the prevalence of suspicious and possibly relevant incidental findings was relatively high among patients (79%) and healthy volunteers (19%). Thus, we believe it is essential to systematically review the low-dose CT portion of all cardiac PET/CT studies in their entirety to avoid missing potentially important and frequent incidental lesions.

This Article Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Crook, D. Articles by Prior, J. PubMed Articles by Crook, D. Articles by Prior, J.