Positron emission tomography (PET) with ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG)
has been increasingly applied, predominantly in the research setting,
to study drug effects and pulmonary biology and
monitor disease progression and treatment outcomes
in lung diseases, disorders that interfere with gas exchange through
alterations
of the pulmonary parenchyma, airways and/or
vasculature. To date, however, there are no widely accepted standard
acquisition
protocols and imaging data analysis methods for
pulmonary ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT in these diseases, resulting in
disparate approaches. Hence, comparison of data across the literature is
challenging.
To help harmonize the acquisition and analysis and
promote reproducibility, acquisition protocol and analysis method
details
were collated from seven PET centers. Based on
this information and discussions among the authors, the consensus
recommendations
reported here on patient preparation, choice of
dynamic versus static imaging, image reconstruction, and image analysis
reporting
were reached.