The effect of pulmonary arterial hypertension on Standardized Uptake Values (SUV) of the liver in PET/CT imaging.

2717 Objectives It was hypothesized that vasoactive substances released due to liver disease may affect the pulmonary vasculature. Therefore, PH may be present in patients secondary to liver disease. SUV of the liver is frequently used as an internal reference point in FDG PET/CT imaging. This study examines the effect PH may have on liver SUV. Methods 19 PET/CT patients (12 male, 7 female) along with 19 age and gender matched controls were retrospectively selected and reviewed. The mean pulmonary artery diameter (MPAD) of each subject was obtained to evaluate the severity of PH. A cutoff of 38.3 mm was used for severe PH1. A two-sample unpooled t-test for unequal variances was used to compare SUV among the groups. Results The mean age of the cases and controls was 62 (range 51-80). The mean MPAD (mm) for patients with PH was 34.46, ranging from 26.9 to 52.3. The mean MPAD (mm) for control patients was 25.54, ranging from 17.6 to 28.7. The SUVs of the liver were obtained for each patient. See Figure. 1. There was no significant difference in SUVs for subjects with PH and the control patients, between subjects with severe PH and the subsequent control group, nor the subjects with mild-moderate PH and their control group, (p=.7248), p=(.6619), and (p=1) respectively. Conclusions Our study suggests PH, regardless of severity, does not affect the liver SUV and therefore does not preclude using the liver as an internal reference point in FDG PET/CT examination.