REVIEW  PET/CT IMAGING IN AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS 

The Quarterly Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2022 September;66(3):229-33

DOI: 10.23736/S1824-4785.22.03456-2

Copyright © 2022 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

The role of [18F]FDG PET/CT in paraneoplastic autoimmune disorders: an umbrella review

Barbara MUOIO ^{1, 2}, Domenico ALBANO ³, Francesco DONDI ³, Francesco BERTAGNA ³, Salvatore ANNUNZIATA ⁴, Francesco FIZ ⁵, Arnoldo PICCARDO ⁵, Ramin SADEGHI ⁶, Giorgio TREGLIA ^{7, 8, 9} ✉

¹ Department of Oncology, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland; ² Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Bellinzona, Switzerland; ³ Department of Nuclear Medicine, Spedali Civili di Brescia, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy; ⁴ Unit of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Oncological Radiotherapy and Hematology, TracerGLab, IRCCS A. Gemelli University Polyclinic Foundation, Rome, Italy; ⁵ Department of Nuclear Medicine, E.O. Ospedali Galliera, Genoa, Italy; ⁶ Nuclear Medicine Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; ⁷ Clinic of Nuclear Medicine, Imaging Institute of Southern Switzerland, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Bellinzona, Switzerland; ⁸ Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; ⁹ Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI), Lugano, Switzerland

Paraneoplastic autoimmune disorders (PAD) are a group of autoimmune diseases associated with neoplasms. Several evidence-based articles (systematic reviews and meta-analyses) have reported data about the role of positron emission tomography (PET) and related hybrid modalities (e.g., PET/CT) using 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose ([¹⁸F]FDG) in patients with PAD. We performed an umbrella review of published systematic reviews and meta-analyses in this setting to provide an evidence-based summary and suggestions for further studies. Several databases were searched to find systematic reviews and meta-analysis on [¹⁸F]FDG PET/CT in PAD. Evidence-based data support the use of [¹⁸F]FDG PET/CT in patients with suspected PAD for investigating an underlying malignancy even if it is still unclear whether [¹⁸F]FDG PET/CT should be performed after negative/inconclusive conventional imaging or as part of the initial workup of PAD.

KEY WORDS: Positron-emission tomography; Nuclear medicine; Multimodal imaging; Autoimmune diseases