Cosma Laura, Sollaku Saadi, Frantellizzi Viviana, De Vincentis Giuseppe
Department of Radiological Sciences, Oncology, and Anatomical Pathology, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Ph.D. Program "Angio-cardio-thoracic Pathophysiology and imaging", Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
J Med Imaging Radiat Oncol. 2020 Oct;64(5):671-673. doi: 10.1111/1754-9485.13099. Epub 2020 Sep 17.
We report the case of who has been hospitalized complaining about fever in the last 4 days. Laboratory data revealed lymphocytopenia and leucopenia with an elevation of C-reactive protein and positive real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Six days before this hospitalization, when the patient was asymptomatic, F-FDG PET/CT images were performed for the therapeutic control of liver metastases of colorectal cancer. Lung abnormality findings at F-FDG PET/CT images, unrelated to cancer metastases, but suspicious for viral infection, may suggest the presence of COVID-19 disease in its early phase before symptoms onset. Since PET/CT is more sensitive than CT scan in detecting host's reaction, the added value of this technique could be monitoring disease progression and could be used as a biomarker of lung disease activity and therefore as an important tool for a better understanding of the factors that contribute to the progression of lung disease.
我们报告了一名患者的病例，该患者在过去4天因发热入院。实验室数据显示淋巴细胞减少和白细胞减少，C反应蛋白升高，实时逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）呈阳性。在此次住院前6天，患者无症状，为对结直肠癌肝转移进行治疗控制而进行了F-FDG PET/CT检查。F-FDG PET/CT图像上的肺部异常发现与癌症转移无关，但怀疑为病毒感染，这可能提示在症状出现前的早期阶段存在COVID-19疾病。由于PET/CT在检测宿主反应方面比CT扫描更敏感，该技术的附加价值可能在于监测疾病进展，并可作为肺部疾病活动的生物标志物，因此是更好地了解导致肺部疾病进展因素的重要工具。
