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Prevalence of interstitial pneumonia suggestive of COVID-19 at 18F-FDG PET/CT in oncological asymptomatic patients in a high prevalence country during pandemic period: a national multi-centric retrospective study.


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

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Prevalence of interstitial pneumonia suggestive of COVID-19 at <sup>18</sup>F-FDG PET/CT in oncological asymptomatic patients in a high prevalence country during pandemic period: a national multi-centric retrospective study.

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]

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