THE ROLE OF PET CT IN COMPARISON TO TRIPHASIC CT IN EARLY FOLLOW UP OF HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA AFTER TRANSARTERIAL CHEMOEMOBLIZATION

Abstract

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the\xa0major causes of mortality among patients with cirrhosis. It represents\xa0about 11.85% of the malignancies of all GIT organs and 1.78% of the\xa0total malignancies among Egyptians.Aim of the work: This study aimed to compare between the role\xa0PET/CT and triphasic CT in evaluation of HCC after trans-arterial\xa0chemoembolization (TACE).\xa0Patients and Methods: From November 2016 to November 2018,\xa0thirty patients (24 males and 6 females), their age ranged from 44 to\xa075 years with mean age of 60.6 years were referred to the radiologyunit after trans-arterial chemoembolization (TACE) of hepatocellular\xa0carcinoma.18F-FDG PET/CT and triphasic CT examinations were\xa0conducted in a private radiology center in Cairo for all patients using\xa0combined PET-CT machine (Philips intgenuity TF PET/CT 128\xa0slices).The reference standard to determine the accuracy of the results\xa0included laboratory serial AFP level monitoring, follow up by\xa0different imaging modalities and histopathological results of the\xa0resected liver in case of transplantation.\xa0Results: PET/CT showed sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of\xa096.3%, 66.7% and 93.3% respectively in comparison to 74%, 100.0%\xa0and 76 % for triphasic CT.\xa0Conclusion: 18F-FDG PET/CT showed higher diagnosticaccuracy over triphasic CT in evaluation of intervention bed following\xa0TACE regardless the degree of tumor vascularity or lipiodol\xa0deposition that could limit detecting residual disease.