FDG-PET/CT pitfalls in oncological head and neck imaging

Macromolecular Research

Volumn 5, Issue 5, 2014, Pages 585-602

  Purohit, Bela S ^a   Ailianou, Angeliki ^a   Dulguerov, Nicolas ^a   Becker, Christoph D ^a   Ratib, Osman ^a   Becker, Minerva ^a  

^a GENEVA UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS   (Switzerland)

Author keywords

Head and neck tumours; Pitfalls; Positron emission tomography computed tomography (PET CT)

Indexed keywords

COMPUTERIZED TOMOGRAPHY; GLUCOSE; MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING; MEDICAL IMAGING; PATHOLOGY; PHYSIOLOGY; POSITRONS; TUMORS;

ANATOMICAL LANDMARKS; CONTRAST-ENHANCED CT; CRANIAL NERVE PALSY; CROSS-SECTIONAL IMAGING; FALSE POSITIVE AND FALSE NEGATIVES; HEAD AND NECK; HEAD-AND-NECK CANCER; PITFALLS;

POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY;

EID: 84919714010     PISSN: 15985032     EISSN: 20927673     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s13244-014-0349-x     Document Type: Review

References (75)

1. Subramaniam RM, Truong M, Peller P, Sakai O, Mercier G (2010) Fluorodeoxyglucose-positron-emission tomography imaging of head and neck squamous cell cancer. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 31:598–604
2. Blodgett TM, Fukui MB, Snyderman CH et al (2005) Combined PET-CT in the head and neck: part 1. Physiologic, altered physiologic, and artifactual FDG uptake. Radiographics 25:897–912
3. Fukui MB, Blodgett TM, Snyderman CH et al (2005) Combined PET-CT in the head and neck: part 2. Diagn Pitfalls Oncol Imaging Radiogr 25:913–930
4. Schöder H (2013) Head and neck cancer. In: Strauss HW, Mariani G, Volterrani D, Larson SM (eds) Nuclear oncology: pathophysiology and clinical applications. Springer, New York, pp 269–295
5. Becker M, Zaidi H (2014) Imaging in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: the potential role of PET/MRI. Br J Radiol 87:20130677
6. Kostakoglu L, Hardoff R, Mirtcheva R, Goldsmith SJ (2004) PET-CT fusion imaging in differentiating physiologic from pathologic FDG uptake. Radiographics 24:1411–1431
7. El-Haddad G, Alavi A, Mavi A, Bural G, Zhuang H (2004) Normal variants in [18 F]-fluorodeoxyglucose PET imaging. Radiol Clin North Am 42:1063–1081
8. Bhargava P, Rahman S, Wendt J (2011) Atlas of confounding factors in head and neck PET/CT imaging. Clin Nucl Med 36:e20–e29
9. Castaigne C, Muylle K, Flamen P (2006) Positron emission tomography in head and neck cancer. In: Hermans R (ed) Head and neck cancer imaging. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, pp 329–343
10. Metser U, Miller E, Lerman H, Even-Sapir E (2007) Benign nonphysiologic lesions with increased 18 F-FDG uptake on PET/CT: characterization and incidence. AJR Am J Roentgenol 189:1203–1210
11. Rodrigues RS, Bozza FA, Christian PE et al (2009) Comparison of whole-body PET/CT, dedicated high-resolution head and neck PET/CT, and contrast-enhanced CT in preoperative staging of clinically M0 squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. J Nucl Med 50:1205–1213
12. Rangaswamy B, Fardanesh MR, Genden EM et al (2013) Improvement in the detection of locoregional recurrence in head and neck malignancies: F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography compared to high-resolution contrast-enhanced computed tomography and endoscopic examination. Laryngoscope 123:2664–2669
13. Chatziioannou SN, Georgakopoulos AT, Pianou NK, Kafiri GT, Pavlou SN, Kallergi M (2014) Recurrent thyroid cancer diagnosis: ROC study of the effect of a high-resolution head and neck 18 F-FDG PET/CT scan. Acad Radiol 21:58–63
14. Haerle SK, Strobel K, Ahmad N, Soltermann A, Schmid DT, Stoeckli SJ (2011) Contrast-enhanced (18)F-FDG-PET/CT for the assessment of necrotic lymph node metastases. Head Neck 33:324–329
15. Boellaard R, O’Doherty MJ, Weber WA et al (2010) FDG PET and PET/CT: EANM procedure guidelines for tumour PET imaging: version 1.0. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 37:181–200
16. Chen YK, Su CT, Chi KH, Cheng RH, Wang SC, Hsu CH (2007) Utility of 18 F-FDG PET/CT uptake patterns in Waldeyer’s ring for differentiating benign from malignant lesions in lateral pharyngeal recess of nasopharynx. J Nucl Med 48:8–14
17. Davison JM, Ozonoff A, Imsande HM, Grillone GA, Subramaniam RM (2010) Squamous cell carcinoma of the palatine tonsils: FDG standardized uptake value ratio as a biomarker to differentiate tonsillar carcinoma from physiologic uptake. Radiology 255:578–585
18. Basu S, Houseni M, Alavi A (2008) Significance of incidental fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in the parotid glands and its impact on patient management. Nucl Med Commun 29:367–373
19. Hadiprodjo D, Ryan T, Truong MT, Mercier G, Subramaniam RM (2012) Parotid gland tumors: preliminary data for the value of FDG PET/CT diagnostic parameters. AJR Am J Roentgenol 198:W185–W190
20. Roh JL, Ryu CH, Choi SH et al (2007) Clinical utility of 18 F-FDG PET for patients with salivary gland malignancies. J Nucl Med 48:240–246
21. Terraz S, Poletti PA, Dulguerov P et al (2013) How reliable is sonography in the assessment of sialolithiasis? AJR Am J Roentgenol 201:W104–W109
22. Becker M, Dulguerov P, Terraz S (2014) Reply. AJR Am J Roentgenol 202:W120
23. Abdullah A, Rivas FF, Srinivasan A (2013) Imaging of the salivary glands. Semin Roentgenol 48:65–74
24. Bajaj Y, Singh S, Cozens N, Sharp J (2005) Critical clinical appraisal of the role of ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration cytology in the management of parotid tumours. J Laryngol Otol 119:289–292
25. Friedman ER, Saindane AM (2013) Pitfalls in the staging of cancer of the major salivary gland neoplasms. Neuroimaging Clin N Am 23:107–122
26. Celebi I, Mahmutoglu AS, Ucgul A, Ulusay SM, Basak T, Basak M (2013) Quantitative diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in the evaluation of parotid gland masses: a study with histopathological correlation. Clin Imaging 37:232–238
27. Zhu Z, Chou C, Yen TC, Cui R (2001) Elevated F-18 FDG uptake in laryngeal muscles mimicking thyroid cancer metastases. Clin Nucl Med 26:689–691
28. Jacene HA, Goudarzi B, Wahl RL (2008) Scalene muscle uptake: a potential pitfall in head and neck PET/CT. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 35:89–94
29. Su HC, Huang CK, Bai YL, Lin CY, Hung GU (2009) Physiologically variant FDG uptake in scalene muscle mimicking neck lymph node metastasis in a patient with lung cancer. Ann Nucl Med Sci 22:239–243
30. Perkins AC, Mshelia DS, Symonds ME, Sathekge M (2013) Prevalence and pattern of brown adipose tissue distribution of 18 F-FDG in patients undergoing PET-CT in a subtropical climatic zone. Nucl Med Commun 34:168–174
31. Rousseau C, Bourbouloux E, Campion L et al (2006) Brown fat in breast cancer patients: analysis of serial (18)F-FDG PET/CT scans. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 33:785–791
32. Tsuchiya T, Osanai T, Ishikawa A, Kato N, Watanabe Y, Ogino T (2006) Hibernomas show intense accumulation of FDG positron emission tomography. J Comput Assist Tomogr 30:333–336
33. Schmalfuss I (2012) Positron emission tomography in head and neck cancer. In: Hermans R (ed) Head and neck cancer imaging, 2nd edn. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, pp 363–385
34. Zhuang H, Yu JQ, Alavi A (2005) Applications of fluorodeoxyglucose-PET imaging in the detection of infection and inflammation and other benign disorders. Radiol Clin North Am 43:121–134
35. Walter MA, Melzer RA, Schindler C, Muller-Brand J, Tyndall A, Nitzsche EU (2005) The value of [18 F]FDG-PET in the diagnosis of large-vessel vasculitis and the assessment of activity and extent of disease. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 32:674–681
36. Jezovnik MK, Zidar N, Lezaic L, Gersak B, Poredos P (2014) Identification of inflamed atherosclerotic lesions in vivo using PET-CT. Inflammation 37:426–434
37. Harrigal C, Branstetter BF, Snyderman CH, Maroon J (2005) Teflon granuloma in the nasopharynx: a potentially false-positive PET/CT finding. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 26:417–420
38. Wong RJ, Lin DT, Schoder H et al (2002) Diagnostic and prognostic value of [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography for recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. J Clin Oncol 20:4199–4208
39. Metser U, Even-Sapir E (2007) Increased (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in benign, nonphysiologic lesions found on whole-body positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT): accumulated data from four years of experience with PET/CT. Semin Nucl Med 37:206–222
40. Porceddu SV, Jarmolowski E, Hicks RJ et al (2005) Utility of positron emission tomography for the detection of disease in residual neck nodes after (chemo)radiotherapy in head and neck cancer. Head Neck 27:175–181
41. Schoder H, Fury M, Lee N, Kraus D (2009) PET monitoring of therapy response in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. J Nucl Med 50(Suppl 1):74S–88S
42. Kapoor V, Fukui MB, McCook BM (2005) Role of 18FFDG PET/CT in the treatment of head and neck cancers: posttherapy evaluation and pitfalls. AJR Am J Roentgenol 184:589–597
43. Becker M, Schroth G, Zbaren P et al (1997) Long-term changes induced by high-dose irradiation of the head and neck region: imaging findings. Radiographics 17:5–26
44. Nabil S, Samman N (2012) Risk factors for osteoradionecrosis after head and neck radiation: a systematic review. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol 113:54–69
45. Avril L, Lombardi T, Ailianou A et al (2014) Radiolucent lesions of the mandible: a pattern-based approach to diagnosis. Insights Imaging 5:85–101
46. Alhilali L, Reynods AR, Fakhran S (2014) Osteoradionecrosis after radiation therapy for head and neck cancer: differentiation from recurrent disease with CT and PET/CT imaging. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 35:1405-1411
47. Thoeny HC, De Keyzer F, King AD (2012) Diffusion-weighted MR imaging in the head and neck. Radiology 263:19–32
48. Platzek I, Beuthien-Baumann B, Schneider M et al (2013) PET/MRI in head and neck cancer: initial experience. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 40:6–11
49. Boss A, Stegger L, Bisdas S et al (2011) Feasibility of simultaneous PET/MR imaging in the head and upper neck area. Eur Radiol 21:1439–1446
50. Vargas MI, Becker M, Garibotto V et al (2013) Approaches for the optimization of MR protocols in clinical hybrid PET/MRI studies. MAGMA 26:57–69
51. Varoquaux A, Rager O, Poncet A et al (2014) Detection and quantification of focal uptake in head and neck tumours: (18)F-FDG PET/MR versus PET/CT. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 41:462–475
52. Desmouliere A, Redard M, Darby I, Gabbiani G (1995) Apoptosis mediates the decrease in cellularity during the transition between granulation tissue and scar. Am J Pathol 146:56–66
53. Kumar V, Abbas AK, Aster JC (2012) Inflammation and repair. In: Kumar V, Abbas AK, Aster JC (eds) Robbins basic pathology, 9th edn. Elsevier Saunders, Philadelphia, pp 29–74
54. Romo LV, Curtin HD (1999) Atrophy of the posterior cricoarytenoid muscle as an indicator of recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 20:467–471
55. Heller MT, Meltzer CC, Fukui MB et al (2000) Superphysiologic FDG uptake in the non-paralyzed vocal cord. Resolution of a false-positive PET result with combined PET-CT imaging. Clin Positron Imaging 3:207–211
56. Pai M, Kim HK, Kim HS (2006) Hypermetabolism of compensatory laryngeal muscles in unilateral vocal cord palsy: comparison study between speech and silence with normal subjects by co-registered PET-CT fusion images. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 40:23–27
57. Paquette CM, Manos DC, Psooy BJ (2012) Unilateral vocal cord paralysis: a review of CT findings, mediastinal causes, and the course of the recurrent laryngeal nerves. Radiographics 32:721–740
58. Becker M, Leuchter I, Platon A, Becker CD, Dulguerov P, Varoquaux A (2014) Imaging of laryngeal trauma. Eur J Radiol 83:142–154
59. Policeni BA, Smoker WR (2008) Pathologic conditions of the lower cranial nerves IX, X, XI, and XII. Neuroimaging Clin N Am 18:347–368
60. Becker M, Kohler R, Vargas MI, Viallon M, Delavelle J (2008) Pathology of the trigeminal nerve. Neuroimaging Clin N Am 18:283–307
61. Werner MK, Pfannenberg C, Oksuz MO (2011) Nonspecific FDG uptake in the tongue mimicking the primary tumor in a patient with cancer of unknown primary. Clin Imaging 35:405–407
62. Chen W, Parsons M, Torigian DA, Zhuang H, Alavi A (2009) Evaluation of thyroid FDG uptake incidentally identified on FDG-PET/CT imaging. Nucl Med Commun 30:240–244
63. Choi JY, Lee KS, Kim HJ et al (2006) Focal thyroid lesions incidentally identified by integrated 18 F-FDG PET/CT: clinical significance and improved characterization. J Nucl Med 47:609–615
64. Lin EC (2002) Thyroid nodule mimicking cervical adenopathy on FDG positron emission tomographic imaging. Clin Nucl Med 27:656–657
65. Weiler-Sagie M, Bushelev O, Epelbaum R et al (2010) (18)F-FDG avidity in lymphoma readdressed: a study of 766 patients. J Nucl Med 51:25–30
66. Purohit BS, Dulguerov P, Burkhardt K, Becker M (2014) Dedifferentiated laryngeal chondrosarcoma: combined morphologic and functional imaging with positron-emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging. Laryngoscope 124:E274–E277
67. Avril NE, Weber WA (2005) Monitoring response to treatment in patients utilizing PET. Radiol Clin North Am 43:189–204
68. Harvey RJ, Pitzer G, Nissman DB et al (2010) PET/CT in the assessment of previously treated skull base malignancies. Head Neck 32:76–84
69. Muzaffar R, Shousha MA, Sarajlic L, Osman MM (2013) Ophthalmologic abnormalities on FDG-PET/CT: a pictorial essay. Cancer Imaging 13:100–112
70. King AD, Ma BB, Yau YY et al (2008) The impact of 18 F-FDG PET/CT on assessment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma at diagnosis. Br J Radiol 81:291–298
71. Goerres GW, Hany TF, Kamel E, von Schulthess GK, Buck A (2002) Head and neck imaging with PET and PET/CT: artefacts from dental metallic implants. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 29:367–370
72. Abdoli M, Ay MR, Ahmadian A, Dierckx RA, Zaidi H (2010) Reduction of dental filling metallic artifacts in CT-based attenuation correction of PET data using weighted virtual sinograms optimized by a genetic algorithm. Med Phys 37:6166–6177
73. Park HH, Shin JY, Lee J et al (2013) A study on the artifacts generated by dental materials in PET/CT image. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2013:2465–2468
74. Nahmias C, Lemmens C, Faul D et al (2008) Does reducing CT artifacts from dental implants influence the PET interpretation in PET/CT studies of oral cancer and head and neck cancer? J Nucl Med 49:1047–1052
75. Delso G, Wollenweber S, Lonn A, Wiesinger F, Veit-Haibach P (2013) MR-driven metal artifact reduction in PET/CT. Phys Med Biol 58:2267–2280