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Updated: Sep 30, 2026

Whole-body PET/MRI of Pediatric Patients: The Details That Matter
Published on: December 19, 2017
Impact of computed tomography-positron emission tomography fusion in staging patients with thoracic malignancies
Thomas A D'Amico1, Terence Z Wong, David H Harpole
1Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA. damic001@mc.duke.edu
Background:
Positron emission tomography (PET) has been demonstrated to improve staging in patients with thoracic malignancies. This study evaluates the ability of a new imaging technique to improve the spatial resolution and accuracy of PET.
Methods:
Patients with known or suspected malignancy (n = 21) who were referred for a dedicated PET scan were also evaluated with a new camera-based PET system, which uniquely allows simultaneous computed tomography (CT) and fusion of the camera-based PET images with the CT images. The dedicated PET scan was obtained 1 hour after intravenous injection of fluorodeoxyglucose. The camera-based PET imaging was fused with the CT images at approximately 2 hours after injection. The camera-based PET and CT-PET fusion images were read independently and blindly by 2 experienced observers and the presence and location of abnormalities was compared with dedicated PET scans.
Results:
Dedicated PET identified 18 sites in the chest as abnormal. The CT-PET fusion was superior to the camera-based PET alone, concordant with the dedicated PET in 16 of 21 patients compared with 13 of 21 by camera-based PET. The lesions missed by the camera-based PET were less than 1 cm in diameter. Fused CT-PET images provided superior anatomic localization and spatial resolution compared with dedicated PET and camera-based PET.
Conclusions:
CT-PET fusion images were more accurate than camera-based PET alone. CT-PET fusion improves the spatial resolution compared with dedicated PET and may improve the availability and efficacy of staging of patients with thoracic malignancies.
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