Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Barachini, O
• Bernt, R
• Mirzaei, S
• Pirich, C
• Hergan, K
• Zandieh, S

Titel

The impact of 18F-FDOPA-PET/MRI image fusion in detecting liver metastasis in patients with neuroendocrine tumors of the gastrointestinal tract

Ist Teil von

• BMC medical imaging, 2020-02, Vol.20 (1), p.22-22, Article 22

Ort / Verlag

England: BioMed Central Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This study assesses the value of image fusion using 18F-fluoro-L-DOPA (18F-DOPA) positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for examining patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and a suspicion of metastasis of the liver. Eleven patients (five women and six men aged between 20 and 81, with a mean age of 54.6 years) were included in the study. All patients underwent whole-body 18F-DOPA PET examinations and contrast-enhanced MRI with diffusion-weighted sequences (DWS). Image fusion was performed using a semiautomatic voxel-based algorithm. Images obtained using PET and MRI were assessed separately. Side-by-side evaluations of fused PET/MRI images were also performed. In total, 55 liver lesions (52 liver metastases and 3 benign lesions) were detected in the 11 patients. Sensitivity detection for liver lesions was higher when using PET/CT than when using contrast-enhanced MRI without DWSs and lower than using MRI with DWSs. The sensitivity of PET/MRI image fusion in the detection of liver metastasis was significantly higher than that of MRI with DWSs (P < 0.05). Images of the liver obtained using PET and MRI in patients with NETs exhibited characteristic features. These findings suggest that an appropriate combination of available imaging modalities can optimize patient evaluations.