Correlation Study Of Growth Characteristics And ¹⁸F-FDG Uptake Heterogeneity In Malignant Solitary Pulmonary Nodule

Objective:We analysed the heterogeneity in ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose（FDG）uptake in areas with different marginal signs to reveal the correlation between growth characteristics of malignant tumours:proliferation and invasion and radiopharmaceutical uptake.Methods:In total,163 cases of malignant solitary pulmonary nodules（SPNs）diagnosed pathologically from October 2017 to December 2019 that underwent 18F-FDG positron emission tomography（PET）/CT imaging were retrospectively analysed.CT was performed to observe the positive CT marginal signs.The maximum standard uptake value（SUVmax）,average standard uptake value（SUVmean）,and standard deviation of the standard uptake value（SUVsd）of the whole lesion and areas with various positive signs were grouped and measured via PET imaging.Results:We detected 300 locations with three marginal signs.The numbers of SPNs with lobulated sign（LS）,burr sign（BS）,and pleural traction sign（PTS）were 115,98 and 77,respectively.The measurements of local SUVmean,SUVmax,and SUVsd in the LS area were significantly higher than those in the BS and PTS areas（all P<0.05）.There was no difference between local metabolic measurements in the BS and PTS areas（p>0.05）.In whole lesion analysis,those with LS alone（n=38）had significantly higher metabolism than lesions melanged with BS/PTS（all p<0.01）.Conclusion:Heterogeneity in ¹⁸F-FDG uptake was found in both local and overall malignant SPN with different marginal signs.¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT imaging can reflect the proliferation and invasive growth characteristics of malignant SPN.