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.
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 / Albano, Domenico; Bertagna, Francesco; Alongi, Pierpaolo; Baldari, Sergio; Baldoncini, Alfonso; Bartolomei, Mirco; Boccaletto, Franco; Boero, Michele; Borsatti, Eugenio; Bruno, Andrea; Burroni, Luca; Capoccetti, Francesca; Castellani, Massimo; Cervino, Anna Rita; Chierichetti, Franca; Ciarmiello, Andrea; Corso, Angelo; Cuocolo, Alberto; De Rimini, Maria Luisa; Deandreis, Desiree'; Dottorini, Massimo Eugenio; Esposito, Filomena; Farsad, Mohsen; Gasparini, Massimo; Grana, Chiara Maria; Gregianin, Michele; Guerra, Luca; Loreti, Fabio; Lupi, Andrea; Martino, Gianluigi; Milan, Elisa; Modoni, Sergio; Morbelli, Silvia; Muni, Alfredo; Nicolai, Emanuele; Palumbo, Barbara; Papa, Sergio; Papaleo, Alberto; Pellerito, Riccardo; Poti, Carlo; Romano, Pasquale; Rossetti, Claudio; Rossini, Pierluigi; Rubini, Giuseppe; Ruffini, Livia; Sacchetti, Gianmauro; Savelli, Giordano; Schiavariello, Saverio; Sciagrà, Roberto; Sciuto, Rosa; Seregni, Ettore; Sestini, Stelvio; Sicolo, Michele; Spanu, Angela; Storto, Giovanni; Balducci, Massimo Tosti; Trifirò, Giuseppe; Versari, Annibale; Vignati, Alberto; Volterrani, Duccio; Calcagni, Maria Lucia; Marzola, Maria Cristina; Garufo, Antonio; Evangelista, Laura; Maroldi, Roberto; Schillaci, Orazio; Giubbini, Raffaele. - In: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE AND MOLECULAR IMAGING. - ISSN 1619-7070. - ELETTRONICO. - (2021), pp. 1-12. [10.1007/s00259-021-05219-0]
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
Sciagrà, Roberto;
2021
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.
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