Does Diabetes Mellitus Influence Standardized Uptake

cancer, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, breast cancer, and others has been increasing as well.3,4 Contrast-enhanced ab-domino-pelvic CT and PET-CT are used in preoperative lo-cal staging evaluations and in diagnosing metastasis. A PET-CT scan is performed after injecting a non-metabolizable glucose sugar analogue, such as 18[F]-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG),1 that remains in cells as an intermediate product. The degree of 18[F]-FDG accumulation in cells with active metabolism is referred to as the standardized uptake value.5 Although FDG uptake in the bowel is often influenced by the amount of intracellular mucus, cell size, peristaltic movement, white blood cell count, and others,6 maximal standardized uptake values (SUVmax) are elevated by an in-crease in the FDG accumulation in cancer cells with active metabolism. When blood glucose levels are high, elevated glucose levels can prevent FDG uptake in malignant tumo