The PET CT test provides a lot of necessary information in a situation where traditional diagnostic methods are insufficient to make a diagnosis. Depending on the radiotracer used, it is possible to provide a lot of valuable information that may be important from the point of view of further treatment of many serious diseases, in particular oncological diseases. Current research and development of new radiopharmaceuticals can raise even more the importance of research using this hybrid.
Application of PET / CT examinations
- assessment of myocardial viability,
- detection and assessment of malignancy of tumors based on their metabolic activity
- imaging of head and neck tumors
- diagnostics of lung and mediastinal diseases, including lung tumors and their metastases
- epigastric tumors showing increased glucose metabolism,
- detection of tumors of the lower abdomen, among others: liver – hepatocellular cancer, bile ducts, metastases to the liver,
- bile duct tumors – gall bladder tumor, bile ducts,
- pancreatic cancer,
- stomach, small intestine and other – stomach tumors, gastrointestinal stromal tumors,
- large intestine – glucose metabolism increases in most colorectal cancers,
- urinary system – prostate cancer diagnostics
- diagnostics, assessment of the severity and recurrence of gynecological cancer in women in the pelvic area: ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, cervical cancer,
- musculoskeletal cancers: assessment of the severity of the disease, diagnosis of metastases / recurrence, assessment of response to treatment,
- malignant melanoma – the test enables the detection of small metastases, due to the metabolic assessment of changes, it also serves to assess the effectiveness of chemotherapy,
- lymphomas and other hematological diseases – assessment of the severity of the disease, relapse / recurrence, selection of the right treatment method and assessment of the response to treatment,
- searching for an outbreak of primary cancer,
- inflammatory diseases such as sarcoidosis, inflammation of large vessels, location of inflammatory foci.
Contraindications to PET CT examination and special precautions
- pregnancy (for this reason, patients of childbearing age (ie from the first menstruation to the year after the last menstruation) are asked to perform a pregnancy test (can be bought at the pharmacy) 1 day before the test and show the test result in the laboratory on the day of the examination. Also signing a statement that the patient who is applying for the test is not pregnant. In the case of breastfeeding, it is advisable to stop feeding for 24 hours after giving the radiotracer).