Feasibility of iodine contrast enhanced CT-scan during a 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography

OBJECTIVE: this prospective study evaluates the feasibility in current clinical practice of contrast enhanced CT-scan for diagnosis purpose, performed during 18FDG PET-CT study with a PET/CT tomography. METHOD: 25 patients underwent FDG imaging for lymphoma staging. The PET scan was done immediately after the usual low dose CT (lCT). A second CT scan was consequently acquired, by using classical diagnosis CT parameters (dCT) and iodinated contrast. For each patient, all CT attenuation correction (CTAC) PET images were visually compared. Density in Hounsfield units (HU) and maximum Standardized Uptake Value (SUVmax) were then measured on different organs and up to 5 specific lymphoma localizations (total of 294 measurements). RESULTS: Visual analysis was similar for the 2 modalities, without discordant interpretation for the pathologic sites. SUVmax means and standard deviation of each organ for lCTAC and dCTAC were comparable. The equation of the fitted multiple linear regression model was: dCT=0.0748191 + 1.17024*lCT (98.71%; p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: These first results allow the use of injected CT scan, before the PET scan acquisition for lymphoma staging with this PET-CT scan, not affected by the height atomic number and elevated density. A great benefit is therefore obtained on diagnostic, logistic and radioprotection purposes.