Integrated PET/CT in Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: Diagnostic Accuracy and Impact on Patient Management

The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic accuracy and impact on patient management of the new integrated PET/ CTmodality in patients with suspected iodine-negative, differen-tiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). Methods: Forty patients with DTCand a suggestion of iodine-negative tumor tissue underwent PET/CT examination (370 MBq 18F-FDG, coregistered PET/CT whole-body images). As the first step of analysis, PET andCT im-ages were scored blindly and independently by 2 nuclear medi-cine physicians and 2 radiologists. A 5-point scale was used. The second step consisted of a consensus reading, during which a virtual side-by-side fusion of PET and CT images was initially evaluated and afterward the ‘‘real’ ’ fusion (i.e., coregistered) PET/CT images were also scored with the same 5-point scale. The imaging results were compared with histopathologic find-ings and the course of disease during further follow-up examina