Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, CHU St. Pierre, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1000 Brussels, Belgium.
Reprod Sci. 2011 Jun;18(6):540-4. doi: 10.1177/1933719110392060. Epub 2011 Feb 1.
Noninvasive techniques have poor sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing endometriosis, which is often associated with an inflammatory process. In several benign diseases, measurement of hypermetabolism using fluorodeoxyglucose (18F 18FDG) reflects the degree of inflammation and aggressiveness of the disease. This prospective study evaluated the value of (18)FDG positron emission tomography (PET)-computed tomography (CT) in assessing the presence of endometriosis.
Ten consecutive patients suspected with endometriosis were prospectively included in this study. A preoperative 18FDG PET-CT was performed in all the patients during the follicular phase of their cycle, which preceded laparoscopic surgery. Surgical endometriosis staging and histopathological analysis of removed tissue were confronted with the results from 18FDG PET-CT.
Of the 10 patients, 9 had endometriosis confirmed by laparoscopy; 6 had advanced stage of the disease and 5 had histologically proven lesions. Nevertheless, none of the patients had 18FDG-demonstrated hypermetabolism at PET-CT.
In this preliminary series, we did not observe hypermetabolic activity in relation to endometriosis using 18FDG PET-CT. This study's most important limitation is the use of 18FDG as an isotopic tracer, which is not specific to endometrial tissue.
非侵入性技术在诊断子宫内膜异位症方面的敏感性和特异性较差，而子宫内膜异位症通常与炎症过程有关。在几种良性疾病中，使用氟脱氧葡萄糖（18F-18FDG）测量高代谢反映了疾病的炎症程度和侵袭性。本前瞻性研究评估了（18）FDG 正电子发射断层扫描（PET）-计算机断层扫描（CT）在评估子宫内膜异位症存在中的价值。
本研究前瞻性纳入了 10 例连续疑似子宫内膜异位症的患者。所有患者在周期的卵泡期进行了术前 18FDG PET-CT，随后进行了腹腔镜手术。手术子宫内膜异位症分期和切除组织的组织病理学分析与 18FDG PET-CT 的结果相对比。
10 例患者中，9 例经腹腔镜证实为子宫内膜异位症；6 例为疾病晚期，5 例有组织学证实的病变。然而，在 PET-CT 上，没有患者表现出 18FDG 示踪的高代谢。
在本初步系列研究中，我们没有观察到使用 18FDG PET-CT 与子宫内膜异位症相关的高代谢活性。本研究的一个重要局限性是使用 18FDG 作为示踪剂，它不是子宫内膜组织的特异性示踪剂。
