Review Article

The Use of F-FDG-PET/CT for Diagnosis and Treatment Monitoring of Inflammatory and Infectious Diseases

Table 1

Applications of FDG-PET for diagnosis and therapy evaluation in various inflammatory and infectious diseases.

Inflammatory/infectious diseaseEvidence for clinical usefulnessDeveloping evidence for clinical usefulnessNeed for multicentre studiesClass of recommendation level of evidenceComments

Vasculitis
 Diagnosis+I-ADifferentiation possible between GCA, TA, and PAN*
 Therapy evaluation+I-CBest time point at 3 months
Sarcoidosis
 Diagnosis+I-AHigh sensitivity, low specificity
 Therapy evaluation+I-CTo evaluate steroid therapy; maybe also for other therapies
Rheumatoid arthritis
 Diagnosis++IIa-C
 Therapy evaluation++IIa-C
Inflammatory bowel diseasesEspecially in children
 Diagnosis+I-C
 Therapy evaluation++IIa-C
Autoimmune thyroiditis
 DiagnosisIII-B
 Therapy evaluationIII-B
Autoimmune pancreatitis
 Diagnosis++IIa-CMaybe possible to differentiate between AIP and pancreatic cancer
 Therapy evaluation++IIb-C
Osteomyelitis
 Diagnosis+I-AOnly in chronic osteomyelitis
 Therapy evaluation++IIa-C
Spondylodiscitis
 Diagnosis+I-A
 Therapy evaluation++IIa-C
Prosthetic joint infections
 Diagnosis+IIb-CWhite blood cell scintigraphy still the first choice
 Therapy evaluation+IIb-C
Diabetic foot
 Diagnosis+IIb-CWhite blood cell scintigraphy still the first choice
 Therapy evaluation+IIb-C
Echinococcosis
 Diagnosis+I-C
 Therapy evaluation+I-C
Fungal infections
 Diagnosis+I-C
 Therapy evaluation++IIa-CMaybe helpful to reduce high costs of antifungal therapy

GCA: giant cell arteritis; TA: Takayasu’s arteritis; PAN: polyarteritis nodosa.