PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hyun, Seung Hyup
AU  - Choi, Joon Young
AU  - Lee, Kyung-Han
AU  - Choe, Yearn Seong
AU  - Kim, Byung-Tae
TI  - Incidental Focal <sup>18</sup>F-FDG Uptake in the Pituitary Gland: Clinical Significance and Differential Diagnostic Criteria
AID  - 10.2967/jnumed.110.083733
DP  - 2011 Apr 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 547--550
VI  - 52
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/52/4/547.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/52/4/547.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2011 Apr 01; 52
AB  - The purpose of this study was to identify the incidence and clinical significance of incidental pituitary uptake on whole-body 18F-FDG PET/CT. Methods: We evaluated 13,145 consecutive subjects who underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT. The final diagnosis of pathologic or physiologic uptake was based on brain MRI and follow-up PET scanning. Receiver-operating-characteristic curve analysis was performed to determine an optimal cutoff for detecting pathologic uptake. Results: We found that 107 (0.8%) subjects showed incidental pituitary uptake. In 29 of 71 subjects with the final diagnosis, the pituitary uptake was pathologic: macroadenomas (n = 21), microadenomas (n = 5), and malignancy (n = 3). When a maximum standardized uptake value of 4.1 was used as an optimal criterion for detecting pathologic uptake, the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 96.6%, 88.1%, and 91.5%, respectively. Conclusion: Although incidental pituitary uptake is an unusual finding, the degree of 18F-FDG accumulation is helpful in identifying pathologic pituitary lesions that warrant further diagnostic evaluation.