Fig 1.
The diagnostic criteria of 18F-FDG PET/CT integrated imaging in the differential diagnosis of pleural effusion.
Fig 2.
18F-FDG PET/CT integrated imaging of 54-year old woman with left lung cancer and malignant pleural effusion.
Axial CT (A) shows effusion in left pleural cavity, and axial 18F-FDG PET (B, arrow) and axial fused 18F-FDG PET/CT (C, arrow) display nodular 18F-FDG uptake (SUVmax of 3.0) in left-posterior pleural region. Pathology from thoracentesis confirmed malignant pleural effusion caused by metastatic adenocarcinoma.
Table 1.
The efficacy of CT, PET and PET/CT integrated imaging in antidiastole of pleural effusion.
Fig 3.
18F-FDG PET/CT integrated imaging of 72-year old man with tuberculous pleural effusion.
Axial CT (A) shows effusion in right pleural cavity and diffuse light smooth thickening of the pleura. Axial 18F-FDG PET (B) and axial fused 18F-FDG PET/CT (C) display diffuse 18F-FDG uptake in right pleural region (SUVmax of 7.9).
Table 2.
Summary of pleural features on CT and PET imagings of 30 tuberculous pleural effusions.