The Open Medical Imaging Journal

2008, 2 : 1-6
Published online 2008 January 3. DOI: 10.2174/1874347100802010001
Publisher ID: TOMIJ-2-1

Differentiation of Tuberculous and Pyogenic Spondylitis Using Double Phase F-18 FDG PET

Seong-Jang Kim , Jung Sub Lee , Kuen Tak Suh , In-Ju Kim and Yong-Ki Kim
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Medical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Republic of Korea.

ABSTRACT

To assess the usefulness of double phase F-18 FDG PET in pyogenic spondylitis (PS) and tuberculous spondylitis (TS). Also, to investigate whether double phase F-18 FDG PET could improve the diagnostic accuracy for discrimination of PS from TS. Methods: Double phase F-18 FDG PET/CT was performed in a consecutive 23 patients (9 men, 14 women; mean age, 58.5±17.9 years, range, 19~81 years) suspected having spondylitis. PET/CT imaging was performed 60 and 120 minutes after injection of F-18 FDG.. Results: The SUVmax1 of TS and PS showed no statistical differences (TS, 4.53±1.77; PS, 4.5±1.9, p=0.9515). The SUVmax2 also showed no statistical differences between two groups (TS, 5.17􀀁1.95; PS, 5.3±2.21, p=0.9321). The mean SUV of early and delayed F-18 FDG PET images revealed no statistical differences between TS and PS. The %􀀁SUVmax and %􀀁SUVmean have no statistical differences between TS and PS (%±SUVmax, TS, 15.07±6.57%, PS, 18.79􀀁10.48%, p=0.5109; %±SUVmean, TS, 16.49±9.1%, PS, 16.88±6.72%, p=0.6524). Also, none of these quantitative indices could differentiate the TS from PS. Furthermore, none of these quantitative indices could predict the presence of TS. Conclusion: Based on the presented data, the quantitative indices of double phase F-18 FDG PET could not differentiate TS from PS despite of high sensitivity for the detection of spondylitis of F-18 FDG PET.

Keywords:

Double phase, F-18 FDG PET, spondylitis.