Diagnostic Performance of 18F-Choline Positron Emission Tomography/Contrast-Enhanced Computed Tomography in Adenoma Detection in Primary Hyperparathyroidism after Inconclusive Imaging: A Retrospective Study of 215 Patients

Comparative Analysis of Diagnostic Efficacy in Primary Hyperparathyroidism: A Comparison Analysis of 11C-Choline PET/CT, Neck Ultrasonography, 99mTc-MIBI Dual-Phase Planar Scintigraphy, and 99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT Imaging

Objective: To compare the diagnostic efficacy of 11C-choline PET/CT, neck ultrasonography, 99mTc-MIBI dual-phase planar scintigraphy, and 99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT imaging in the diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 32 patients with PHPT who visited the Nuclear Medicine Department of Jilin University China-Japan Union Hospital between January 2019 and December 2022. All patients underwent 11C-choline PET/CT, neck ultrasonography, 99mTc-MIBI dual-phase planar scintigraphy, and 99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT examinations within two months before surgery. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of each imaging study were compared using postoperative pathology and follow-up results. Diagnostic efficacy was further analyzed using ROC curve analysis. Factors influencing on 99mTc-MIBI imaging were also investigated. Results: A total of 35 lesions were resected in the 32 patients. The diagnostic sensitivity of 11C-choline PET/CT, neck ultrasonography, 99mTc-MIBI dual-phase planar scintigraphy, and 99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT was 88.2%, 52.9%, 58.8%, and 67.6%, respectively. Specificity was 96.8%, 95.7%, 96.8%, and 95.7%, respectively. Positive predictive values were 90.9%, 81.8%, 86.9%, and 85.2%, respectively, and negative predictive values were 95.7%, 84.9%, 86.7%, and 89.1%, respectively. The areas under the ROC curve (AUC) were 0.925, 0.743, 0.778, and 0.817, respectively. Among them, 11C-choline PET/CT had higher sensitivity and AUC than other imaging studies (p<0.05), while specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were similar (p>0.05). The positive group in 99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT imaging had significantly larger lesion diameters than the negative group (P<0.05), while preoperative blood calcium and PTH showed no statistical differences (P>0.05). Conclusion: 11C-choline PET/CT demonstrates superior preoperative diagnostic efficacy for PHPT compared to neck ultrasonography, 99mTc-MIBI dual-phase planar scintigraphy, and 99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT. Lesion size may be the primary factor affecting the sensitivity of 99mTc-MIBI imaging.

The role of 18F-fluoromethylcholine-positron emission tomography-computed tomography for preoperative localization of hyperfunctioning parathyroid glands with special emphasis on multiglandular disease: a retrospective cohort study

Background

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a common endocrine disorder. Definitive treatment is surgical. Preoperative localization of diseased glands increases the chance of successful treatment. The aim of this study is to investigate the diagnostic performance of 18F-fluoromethylcholine-positron emission tomography-computed tomography (18F-FCh-PET-CT) in preoperative localization of diseased parathyroid glands, when first-line examinations were inconclusive.

Methods

This is a retrospective study. All patients with PHPT who underwent 18F-FCh-PET-CT, after inconclusive ultrasound examination and 99mTc-methoxyisobutylisonitrile/single-photon emission CT-CT, were included in cohort I. Patients who were subsequently operated for their parathyroid disease, were included in cohort II. The performance of 18F-FCh-PET-CT was analyzed in two sets: per-lesion, and per-gland analysis.

Results

Out of 52 patients in cohort I, 18F-FCh-PET-CT identified single or multiple parathyroid lesions in 43 patients (83%). Nine patients had multiglandular disease. Thirty-four (65%) patients were subsequently operated and included in cohort II. Forty-four lesions were removed from these patients and 33 patients (97%) were cured. 18F-FCh-PET-CT localized 40 out of 44 lesions, with per-lesion and per-gland sensitivities of 97% and 95%, and positive predictive values (PPVs) of 93% and 87%, respectively, in addition to a specificity of 97% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 94% in the per-gland analysis. Comparable excellent results were detected in multiglandular disease with sensitivity of 94.1%, specificity of 89%, PPV of 84%, and NPV of 94%.

Conclusions

Our study demonstrates the high diagnostic performance of 18F-FCh-PET-CT in the preoperative localization of diseased parathyroid gland in patients with PHPT, especially in multiglandular PHPT.