F-18 FDG PET/CT imaging in the diagnostic work-up of thyroid cancer patients with high serum thyroglobulin, negative I-131 whole body scan and suppressed thyrotropin: 8-year experience

U. Elboga, H. Karaoglan, E. Sahin, E. Kalender, H.D. Demir, M. Basıbuyuk, Y. Zeki Celen, M. Yilmaz, M. Ozkaya

Department of Nuclear Medicine, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey. umutelboga@hotmail.com

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• Endocrinology

OBJECTIVE: Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging in the follow-up of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma who have high serum thyroglobulin, negative iodine-131 whole body scan and suppressed thyrotropin.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 90 patients (31 male and 59 female) with differentiated thyroid carcinoma who have high serum thyroglobulin and negative iodine-131 whole body scan were included in the study between July 2006 and March 2014. All patients had undergone surgery (total thyroidectomy ± lymph node dissection) followed by iodine-131 ablation. Of the patients, 82 had papillary thyroid carcinoma and 8 follicular thyroid carcinoma. Serum thyrotropin was suppressed (< 2 μ IU/ml) during the Fluor-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging procedure.

RESULTS: The overall sensitivity of fluor-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging in the detection of metastasis of differentiated thyroid cancer was 84.8%, the specificity 79.1%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of fluor-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging in classic type of papillary cancer was 83.3% and 54.5%, respectively. The corresponding figures for the tall cell variant was 85.7% and 87.5%, respectively. The difference between the two histological subtypes was statistically significant (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that fluor-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging could be a valuable test for the routine follow-up of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

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