Spectrum of malignant pleural and pericardial disease on FDG PET/CT.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to illustrate a wide spectrum of malignant primary and secondary pleural and pericardial diseases imaged with (18)F-FDG PET/CT. CONCLUSION: A wide variety of malignant pleural and pericardial diseases can be detected, staged, and monitored by FDG PET/CT. Although the PET/CT findings are often nonspecific, the aim of this atlas is to show that the spectrum of pleural and pericardial disease that can be evaluated with PET/CT is much broader than current literature would suggest. PET/CT readers and oncologists should be aware of the wide variety of malignancies that can affect the pleura and pericardium and some of the patterns of FDG uptake that can be observed in these cases.