Significance of FDG–PET standardized uptake values in predicting thyroid disease

Tomohiro Kikuchi; Shouhei Hanaoka; Takahiro Nakao; Yukihiro Nomura; Takeharu Yoshikawa; Ashraful Alam; Harushi Mori; Naoto Hayashi

doi:10.1530/ETJ-22-0165

European Thyroid Journal (Jan 2023)

Significance of FDG–PET standardized uptake values in predicting thyroid disease

Tomohiro Kikuchi,
Shouhei Hanaoka,
Takahiro Nakao,
Yukihiro Nomura,
Takeharu Yoshikawa,
Ashraful Alam,
Harushi Mori,
Naoto Hayashi

Affiliations

Tomohiro Kikuchi: Department of Computational Diagnostic Radiology and Preventive Medicine, the University of Tokyo Hospital, Hongo, Bunkyo–ku, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Radiology, Jichi Medical University, School of Medicine, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan
Shouhei Hanaoka: Department of Radiology, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Hongo, Bunkyo–ku, Tokyo, Japan
Takahiro Nakao: Department of Computational Diagnostic Radiology and Preventive Medicine, the University of Tokyo Hospital, Hongo, Bunkyo–ku, Tokyo, Japan
Yukihiro Nomura: Department of Computational Diagnostic Radiology and Preventive Medicine, the University of Tokyo Hospital, Hongo, Bunkyo–ku, Tokyo, Japan; Center for Frontier Medical Engineering, Chiba University, Yayoicho, Inage–ku, Chiba, Japan
Takeharu Yoshikawa: Department of Computational Diagnostic Radiology and Preventive Medicine, the University of Tokyo Hospital, Hongo, Bunkyo–ku, Tokyo, Japan
Ashraful Alam: Department of Computational Diagnostic Radiology and Preventive Medicine, the University of Tokyo Hospital, Hongo, Bunkyo–ku, Tokyo, Japan
Harushi Mori: Department of Radiology, Jichi Medical University, School of Medicine, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan
Naoto Hayashi: Department of Computational Diagnostic Radiology and Preventive Medicine, the University of Tokyo Hospital, Hongo, Bunkyo–ku, Tokyo, Japan

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1530/ETJ-22-0165
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Objective: This study aimed to determine a standardized cut-off value for abnormal 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) accumulation in the thyroid gland. Methods: Herein, 7013 FDG–PET/CT scans were included. An automatic thy roid segmentation method using two U-nets (2D- and 3D-U-net) was con structed; mean FDG standardized uptake value (SUV), CT value, and volume of th e thyroid gland were obtained from each participant. The values were categorized by thyroid function into three groups based on serum thyroid-stimulating hormone levels. Thyroid function and mean SUV with increments of 1 were analyzed, and risk for thyro id dysfunction was calculated. Thyroid dysfunction detection ability was examined using a machine learning method (LightGBM, Microsoft) with age, sex, height, weight, CT value, volume, and mean SUV as explanatory variables. Results: Mean SUV was significantly higher in females with hypothyroidi sm. Almost 98.9% of participants in the normal group had mean SUV < 2 and 93.8% participants with mean SUV < 2 had normal thyroid function. The hypothyroidism group h ad more cases with mean SUV ≥ 2. The relative risk of having abnormal thyroid function was 4 .6 with mean SUV ≥ 2. The sensitivity and specificity for detecting thyroid dysfun ction using LightGBM (Microsoft) were 14.5 and 99%, respectively. Conclusions: Mean SUV ≥ 2 was strongly associated with abnormal thyroid function in this large cohort, indicating that mean SUV with FDG–PET/CT can be used as a criterion for thyroid evaluation. Preliminarily, this study shows the pot ential utility of detecting thyroid dysfunction based on imaging findings.

Published in European Thyroid Journal

ISSN: 2235-0802 (Online)
Publisher: Bioscientifica
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Medicine: Internal medicine: Specialties of internal medicine: Diseases of the endocrine glands. Clinical endocrinology
Website: https://etj.bioscientifica.com/

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