[A prospective study to determine the real value of mesenteric ¹⁸F-FDG uptake in cancer patients. inflammatory or tumoral mesenteric paniculitis?].

AIM: To assess the metabolic behavior of mesenteric panniculitis (MP), possible manifestation patterns in ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT imaging and to discover if it is a reliable diagnostic method to differentiate tumor disease from inflammatory condition in this context.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

A total of 2,666 PET/CT scans were evaluated prospectively from April 2012 to August 2013. Thirty patients were included (37 scans) with radiological signs of MP. There were 8 women and 22 men, aged between 39 and 81 years, in the sample. According to the ¹⁸F-FDG uptake in the mesenteric lesions, expressed as SUVmax, patients were classified into two different groups: Group A consisted of 10 patients with increased uptake, SUVmax ≥ 2 or greater than the activity found in the surrounding healthy mesenteric tissue, and Group B (20 patients) SUVmax <2 or indistinguishable from healthy tissue.

RESULTS

No signs of mesenteric tumour involvement were demonstrated during a mean follow up of 13 months (false positives) in 80% of the Group A patients (mean SUVmax 7.11). Signs of the presence of tumor were only demonstrated in two patients of Group A (SUVmax 7.57 and 9.46) with a positive predictive value of 49.79%. All Group B patients were confirmed to be free of mesenteric involvement.

CONCLUSIONS

The presence of radiological signs of suggestive of MP, increase in glycidic metabolism, even intense and focal in these lesions, which may not exclude the possibility of an ongoing tumour process, would have a high likelihood of being indicative of intense inflammatory activity.