Pictorial essay: PET/CT in tuberculosis

Potential role of F18 FDG PET-CT as an imaging biomarker for the noninvasive evaluation in uncomplicated skeletal tuberculosis: a prospective clinical observational study

“…Studies have shown that active tuberculous lesions often exhibit a high degree of FDG uptake, though this can vary, depending upon the grade of inflammatory activity [4].…”

“…Activated inflammatory cells like neutrophils, macrophages and lymphocytes show increased F-18 FDG uptake. The intensity of radiotracer uptake depends upon the grade of inflammatory activity [4]. The evolution of radiotracer uptake, thus, can be used to measure the efficacy of medical treatment, permitting either a better modulation of drug dosage or a radical modification of therapeutic strategy.…”

Imaging tuberculosis with endogenous β-lactamase reporter enzyme fluorescence in live mice

“…Our observation that therapeutics can be evaluated within 24-48 h with REF supports this conclusion. The presence of β-lactamases in bacteria, such as P. aeruginosa or methicillin-resistant S. aureus, that cause community-acquired pneumonias (CAP) could potentially interfere with REF, but the clinical presentation for tuberculosis is frequently sufficiently different from CAP (42)(43)(44)(45)(46) that the typical nodular lesions in the apical lobe of the lung found with tuberculosis are more likely to be misdiagnosed as carcinoma (46)(47)(48). Carcinoma could be differentiated from tuberculosis using REF imaging, making REF a potentially valuable tool in the diagnostic arsenal.…”

Comparison of PET/CT with other imaging modalities in women with genital tuberculosis

“…Computed tomography and MRI are useful in the detection of pelvic and abdominal masses, especially when the lesions may resemble malignant ovarian tumors [11,12]. The latter imaging methods increasingly used in gynecology in the presence of abdominal and pelvic masses [11,13,14].…”

“…Although ultrasound is the most used imaging modality in the diagnosis and characterization of tubercular tubo-ovarian masses, computed tomography (CT) can also give useful but usually nonspecific information [9]. Soft-tissue adnexal masses are better characterized by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) than by CT or ultrasound [10]; and 2-deoxy-2-( 18 F)fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography ( 18 F-FDG-PET) combined with CT, a novel modality for the detection of malignancies and inflammatory masses, differentiates between active and inactive disease by showing an increased uptake of glucose [11]. a noninvasive decision-making tool in women with proven tubercular disease.…”