Incidental Focal 18F-FDG Uptake in the Pituitary Gland: Clinical Significance and Differential Diagnostic Criteria
Open Access
- 18 March 2011
- journal article
- Published by Society of Nuclear Medicine in Journal of Nuclear Medicine
- Vol. 52 (4), 547-550
- https://doi.org/10.2967/jnumed.110.083733
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the incidence and clinical significance of incidental pituitary uptake on whole-body 18F-FDG PET/CT. Methods: We evaluated 13,145 consecutive subjects who underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT. The final diagnosis of pathologic or physiologic uptake was based on brain MRI and follow-up PET scanning. Receiver-operating-characteristic curve analysis was performed to determine an optimal cutoff for detecting pathologic uptake. Results: We found that 107 (0.8%) subjects showed incidental pituitary uptake. In 29 of 71 subjects with the final diagnosis, the pituitary uptake was pathologic: macroadenomas (n = 21), microadenomas (n = 5), and malignancy (n = 3). When a maximum standardized uptake value of 4.1 was used as an optimal criterion for detecting pathologic uptake, the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 96.6%, 88.1%, and 91.5%, respectively. Conclusion: Although incidental pituitary uptake is an unusual finding, the degree of 18F-FDG accumulation is helpful in identifying pathologic pituitary lesions that warrant further diagnostic evaluation.This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
- Incidental pituitary uptake on whole-body 18F-FDG PET/CT: a multicentre studyEuropean Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, 2010
- Pituitary incidentalomasBest Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2009
- Unexpected foci of 18F-FDG uptake in the breast detected by PET/CT: incidence and clinical significanceEuropean Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, 2009
- The Significance and Management of Incidental [18F]Fluorodeoxyglucose–Positron-Emission Tomography Uptake in the Thyroid Gland in Patients with CancerAmerican Journal of Neuroradiology, 2009
- Quantification of FDG PET studies using standardised uptake values in multi-centre trials: effects of image reconstruction, resolution and ROI definition parametersEuropean Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, 2006
- The prevalence of pituitary adenomasCancer, 2004
- PITUITARY INCIDENTALOMASEndocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America, 1997
- Incidental Pituitary Macroadenoma: A Population-Based StudyThe American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 1997
- INCIDENTALOMASEndocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America, 1997
- Clinically serious abnormalities found incidentally at MR imaging of the brain: data from the Cardiovascular Health Study.Radiology, 1997