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Review
. 2020 Nov 10;13(11):377.
doi: 10.3390/ph13110377.

Role of 2-[18F]FDG as a Radiopharmaceutical for PET/CT in Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Review

Salvatore Annunziata  1 , Roberto C Delgado Bolton  2 , Christel-Hermann Kamani  3 , John O Prior  3 , Domenico Albano  4 , Francesco Bertagna  4 , Giorgio Treglia  3   5   6
Affiliations
Review

Role of 2-[18F]FDG as a Radiopharmaceutical for PET/CT in Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Review

Salvatore Annunziata et al. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). .

Abstract

Some recent studies evaluated the role of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (2-[18F]FDG) as a radiopharmaceutical for positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging in patients with Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). This article aims to perform a systematic review in this setting. A comprehensive computer literature search in PubMed/MEDLINE and Cochrane library databases regarding the role of 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT in patients with COVID-19 was carried out. This combination of key words was used: (A) "PET" OR "positron emission tomography" AND (B) "COVID" OR "SARS". Only pertinent original articles were selected; case reports and very small case series were excluded. We have selected 11 original studies of 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT in patients with COVID-19. Evidence-based data showed first preliminary applications of this diagnostic tool in this clinical setting, with particular regard to the incidental detection of interstitial pneumonia suspected for COVID-19. To date, according to evidence-based data, 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT cannot substitute or integrate high-resolution CT to diagnose suspicious COVID-19 or for disease monitoring, but it can only be useful to incidentally detect suspicious COVID-19 lesions in patients performing this imaging method for standard oncological and non-oncological indications. Published data about the possible role of 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT in patients with COVID-19 are increasing, but larger studies are warranted.

Keywords: COVID-19; FDG; PET; SARS-CoV-2; fluorodeoxyglucose; infection; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemical structure of 2-[18F]FDG.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flowchart of study selection and search results.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Quality assessment of the included studies according to QUADAS-2 tool.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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