Whole-body FDG-PET unravels puzzling fevers
Whole-body FDG-PET can reveal the cause of fevers of unknown origin, according to Dutch researchers.
Whole-body FDG-PET can reveal the cause of fevers of unknown origin, according to Dutch researchers.
Dr. W.J. Oyen, a nuclear physician at Nijmegen Medical Center, and colleagues drew 75 patients from one university and five general community hospitals with fevers of at least 100.4 degrees F that had persisted for at least three weeks. They performed PET after chest x-ray, abdominal ultrasound, and a cryoglobulin blood test failed to identify the fevers' origins.
PET was clinically helpful in 70% of the cases, in which it produced a positive result, and it contributed to the ultimate diagnosis in 33%. Clinicians can boost the efficacy of FDG-PET by excluding patients with a normal erythrocyte sedimentation rate or C-reactive protein. Positive PET findings never arose under those conditions, the researchers said. Oyen reported the findings at the 2006 Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting.
Newsletter
Stay at the forefront of radiology with the Diagnostic Imaging newsletter, delivering the latest news, clinical insights, and imaging advancements for today’s radiologists.
Key MRI Findings Predictive of Treatment Response for Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma
July 14th 2025For patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, a pre-treatment MRI finding of LI-RADS tumor in vein was associated with over an 86 percent lower likelihood of responding to transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and targeted immunotherapy.
