Clinical Significance of Incidental 18-FDG Uptake in Nasopharynx on PET/CT Scanning

Abstract

Objective: The necessity of biopsy in cases of incidental nasopharyngeal 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18-FDG) uptake was investigated in this study. Materials and Methods: A total of 27 patients, who suffered incidental 18-FDG uptake in their nasopharynx, were enrolled in the study. Their primary malignant diseases, physical examination findings, standardized uptake values (SUV), uptake sides, and nasopharynx biopsy results were evaluated. Results: There were 23 benign and 4 malignant tumors found on the biopsy results. A total of 10 patients had visible lesions in their physical examinations. When the data were evaluated statistically, the relationship between the visible lesion and the nasopharyngeal biopsy results was found to be significant (p<0.05). All the patients who had a malignant biopsy result also had a history of lymphoma and an asymmetrical nasopharyngeal uptake. There was no significant difference between the SUVmax value and the biopsy result. Conclusion: Biopsy can be considered in patients who have a visible lesion in the nasopharynx examination, a history of lymphoma, and asymmetrical nasopharyngeal uptake according to the PET scan.

Keywords

• lymphoma
• suvmax
• endoscopy.