European journal of nuclear medicine
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Comparative Study
Role of attenuation correction for fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in the primary staging of malignant lymphoma.
Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) has been shown to improve the diagnostic accuracy in the staging of malignant lymphomas, based on the metabolic signal of the lesions. This study was undertaken to determine the effect of attenuation correction in the detection of nodal and extranodal lesions in the primary staging of malignant lymphomas. Fifty-one untreated patients with either non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL, n=29) or Hodgkin's disease (n=22) were retrospectively evaluated. ⋯ Thirty-seven extranodal lesions (including lung, liver, spleen, bone marrow and soft tissue) were detected by both techniques without significant differences. It is concluded that in this study, attenuation correction did not improve the diagnostic accuracy of FDG-PET in the detection of lymph node or organ involvement during the primary staging of malignant lymphomas. Of more importance seemed to be the experience of the reader regarding the classification of a lesion's status the anatomical assignment, knowledge of physiological uptake and artefacts, and systematic and skillful examination of all regions scanned.