• Jiahe Tian, Xiaofeng Yang, Lijuan Yu, Ping Chen, Jun Xin, Liming Ma, Huiru Feng, Yieyin Tan, Zhoushe Zhao, and Wenkai Wu.
• Department of Nuclear Medicine, The Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China, 100853. tianjh@vip.sina.com.cn
• J. Nucl. Med. 2008 Feb 1; 49 (2): 186-94.

UnlabelledSome new radiotracers might add useful information and improve diagnostic confidence of (18)F-FDG imaging in tumors. A multicenter clinical trial was designed to investigate the diagnostic performance of dual-tracer ((18)F-FDG and 3'-deoxy-3'-(18)F-fluorothymidine [(18)F-FLT]) PET/CT in pulmonary nodules.MethodsFifty-five patients underwent dual-tracer imaging in 6 imaging centers using the same models of equipment and standardized protocols. The images were interpreted by a collective group of readers who were unaware of the clinical data. The diagnostic performance using either tracer alone or dual-tracers together, with or without CT, was compared. The histological diagnosis or clinical findings in a 12-mo follow-up period served as the standard of truth.ResultsIn 16 patients with malignant tumor, 16 with tuberculosis, and 23 with other benign lesions, the sensitivity and specificity of (18)F-FDG and (18)F-FLT were 87.5% and 58.97% and 68.75% and 76.92%, respectively. The combination of dual-tracer PET/CT improved the sensitivity and specificity up to 100% and 89.74%. The 3 subgroups of patients could be best separated when the (18)F-FLT/(18)F-FDG standardized uptake value ratio of 0.4-0.90 was used as the threshold.ConclusionBy reflecting different biologic features, the dual-tracer PET/CT using (18)F-FDG and (18)F-FLT favorably affected the diagnosis of lung nodules.

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