Systematic review: prevalence of malignant incidental thyroid nodules identified on fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography.

Purpose: To review current literature and determine the prevalence of malignant incidental focal hypermetabolic thyroid lesions detected by fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (F-FDG-PET).

Materials And Methods: Studies evaluating thyroid carcinomas discovered incidentally on F-FDG-PET were systematically searched in the MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Reviews from 1998 to 2007. Studies were eligible for inclusion with the following criteria: F-FDG-PET studies carried out on humans, long-term clinical follow-up or presence of histological confirmation of thyroid disease, and if studies reported the prevalence of abnormal F-FDG-PET scans with thyroid lesions and confirmed pathological thyroid disease.

Relative lung perfusion distribution in normal lung scans: observations and clinical implications.

Objectives: While relative lung perfusion distributions are cited in clinical decision making for congenital and acquired pulmonary vascular diseases, normal values and ranges have not been published for a large population of normally perfused lungs. These values of normal relative perfusion will be useful for establishing what is abnormal and for clinical decisions related to various pulmonary vascular diseases.

Methods: Relative perfusion distributions were quantified for the top, middle, and bottom thirds of the right and left lungs with a semiautomatic algorithm in 206 normal scintigraphy lung studies (45 +/- 18 years, 149 female, 57 male) acquired between January 1, 2000 and March 30, 2004 in the Nuclear Medicine Division at Stanford Hospital and Clinics.