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ABSTRACT: Purpose
To assess the presence and pattern of incidental interstitial lung alterations suspicious of COVID-19 on fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) ([18F]FDG PET/CT) in asymptomatic oncological patients during the period of active COVID-19 in a country with high prevalence of the virus.Methods
This is a multi-center retrospective observational study involving 59 Italian centers. We retrospectively reviewed the prevalence of interstitial pneumonia detected during the COVID period (between March 16 and 27, 2020) and compared to a pre-COVID period (January-February 2020) and a control time (in 2019). The diagnosis of interstitial pneumonia was done considering lung alterations of CT of PET.Results
Overall, [18F]FDG PET/CT was performed on 4008 patients in the COVID period, 19,267 in the pre-COVID period, and 5513 in the control period. The rate of interstitial pneumonia suspicious for COVID-19 was significantly higher during the COVID period (7.1%) compared with that found in the pre-COVID (5.35%) and control periods (5.15%) (p < 0.001). Instead, no significant difference among pre-COVID and control periods was present. The prevalence of interstitial pneumonia detected at PET/CT was directly associated with geographic virus diffusion, with the higher rate in Northern Italy. Among 284 interstitial pneumonia detected during COVID period, 169 (59%) were FDG-avid (average SUVmax of 4.1).Conclusions
A significant increase of interstitial pneumonia incidentally detected with [18F]FDG PET/CT has been demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. A majority of interstitial pneumonia were FDG-avid. Our results underlined the importance of paying attention to incidental CT findings of pneumonia detected at PET/CT, and these reports might help to recognize early COVID-19 cases guiding the subsequent management.
SUBMITTER: Albano D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7871520 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Albano Domenico D Bertagna Francesco F Alongi Pierpaolo P Baldari Sergio S Baldoncini Alfonso A Bartolomei Mirco M Boccaletto Franco F Boero Michele M Borsatti Eugenio E Bruno Andrea A Burroni Luca L Capoccetti Francesca F Castellani Massimo M Cervino Anna Rita AR Chierichetti Franca F Ciarmiello Andrea A Corso Angelo A Cuocolo Alberto A De Rimini Maria Luisa ML Deandreis Desiree' D Dottorini Massimo Eugenio ME Esposito Filomena F Farsad Mohsen M Gasparini Massimo M Grana Chiara Maria CM Gregianin Michele M Guerra Luca L Loreti Fabio F Lupi Andrea A Martino Gianluigi G Milan Elisa E Modoni Sergio S Morbelli Silvia S Muni Alfredo A Nicolai Emanuele E Palumbo Barbara B Papa Sergio S Papaleo Alberto A Pellerito Riccardo R Poti Carlo C Romano Pasquale P Rossetti Claudio C Rossini Pierluigi P Rubini Giuseppe G Ruffini Livia L Sacchetti Gianmauro G Savelli Giordano G Schiavariello Saverio S Sciagrà Roberto R Sciuto Rosa R Seregni Ettore E Sestini Stelvio S Sicolo Michele M Spanu Angela A Storto Giovanni G Balducci Massimo Tosti MT Trifirò Giuseppe G Versari Annibale A Vignati Alberto A Volterrani Duccio D Calcagni Maria Lucia ML Marzola Maria Cristina MC Garufo Antonio A Evangelista Laura L Maroldi Roberto R Schillaci Orazio O Giubbini Raffaele R
European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging 20210209 9
<h4>Purpose</h4>To assess the presence and pattern of incidental interstitial lung alterations suspicious of COVID-19 on fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) ([<sup>18</sup>F]FDG PET/CT) in asymptomatic oncological patients during the period of active COVID-19 in a country with high prevalence of the virus.<h4>Methods</h4>This is a multi-center retrospective observational study involving 59 Italian centers. We retrospectively reviewed the pre ...[more]