Prevalence and pattern of incidental sinus mucosal disease seen on 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging among cancer patients

Abstract

Objective: To study the incidental abnormalities of paranasal sinuses in cancer patients who underwent F18- Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) scan. Subjects and Methods: A total of 342 patients were selected, out of which 101 patients have shown CT findings with F18-FDG avidity in paranasal sinuses. Mucosal thickening, retention cyst, and opacification were seen in one or multiple sinuses bilaterally. Mucosal thickening and opacification were labeled as active disease, while retention cyst as noninflammatory. Maximum standardized uptake values (SUV max) of all the involved sinuses on PET were calculated to assess the correlation between CT and PET findings to derive a cut-off value for sinusitis. Results: Comparison of mean SUV between mucosal thickening and opacification with that of retention cyst showed significant difference with p-value of sample t-test as 0.001 and best cut-off value for sinusitis to be 1.82. Conclusion: From the findings of this study, it can be concluded that incidental sinus findings are not seen uncommonly in cancer patients.