Metabolic characterization of structural lung changes in patients with findings suggestive of incidental COVID-19 pneumonia on 18F-FDG PET/CT. Pathophysiological insights from multimodal images obtained during the pandemic.
Rev Esp Med Nucl Imagen Mol (Engl Ed)
; 42(6): 380-387, 2023.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37454730
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
To evaluate the metabolic uptake of different tomographic signs observed in patients with incidental structural findings suggestive of COVID-19 pneumonia through 18F-FDG PET/CT. MATERIALS ANDMETHODS:
We retrospectively analyzed 596 PET/CT studies performed from February 21, 2020 to April 17, 2020. After excluding 37 scans (non-18F-FDG PET tracers and brain studies), we analyzed the metabolic activity of several structural changes integrated in the CO-RADS score using the SUVmax of multimodal studies with 18F-FDG.RESULTS:
Forty-three patients with 18F-FDG PET/CT findings suggestive of COVID-19 pneumonia were included (mean age 68±12.3 years, 22 male). SUVmax values were higher in patients with CO-RADS categories 5-6 than in those with lower CO-RADS categories (6.1±3.0 vs. 3.6±2.1, p=0.004). In patients with CO-RADS 5-6, ground-glass opacities, bilaterality and consolidations exhibited higher SUVmax values (p-values of 0.01, 0.02 and 0.01, respectively). Patchy distribution and crazy paving pattern were also associated with higher SUVmax (p-values of 0.002 and 0.01). After multivariate analysis, SUVmax was significantly associated with a positive structural diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia (odds ratio=0.63, 95% confidence interval=0.41-0.90; p=0.02). The ROC curve of the regression model intended to confirm or rule out the structural diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia showed an AUC of 0.77 (standard error=0.072, p=0.003).CONCLUSIONS:
In those patients referred for standard oncologic and non-oncologic indications (43/559; 7.7%) during pandemic, imaging with 18F-FDG PET/CT is a useful tool during incidental detection of COVID-19 pneumonia. Several CT findings characteristic of COVID-19 pneumonia, specifically those included in diagnostic CO-RADS scores (5-6), were associated with higher SUVmax values.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Aged
/
Aged80
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
Rev Esp Med Nucl Imagen Mol (Engl Ed)
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article