Advantages of additional PET vs. MRI in the clinical diagnosis of anterior mediastinal tumors

Yajima,Toshiki; Mogi,Akira; Yamaki,Ei; Onozato,Ryouichi; Kosaka,Takayuki; Shirabe,Ken; Kuwano,Hiroyuki

doi:10.3892/mco.2020.2155

Advantages of additional PET vs. MRI in the clinical diagnosis of anterior mediastinal tumors

Authors:
- Toshiki Yajima
- Akira Mogi
- Ei Yamaki
- Ryouichi Onozato
- Takayuki Kosaka
- Ken Shirabe
- Hiroyuki Kuwano
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Affiliations: Department of General Surgical Science, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi‑shi, Gunma 371‑8511, Japan
Published online on: October 16, 2020 https://doi.org/10.3892/mco.2020.2155
Article Number: 85

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Abstract

The present study retrospectively examined the diagnostic utility of adding positron emission tomography (PET) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to computed tomography (CT) alone for preoperative diagnosis of anterior mediastinal tumors. A total of 104 consecutive patients who had undergone surgical resection of anterior mediastinal tumors were divided into two groups: Additional PET to another modality and no additional PET to another modality, and further subdivided into three groups: CT alone, additional MRI to CT and additional PET to CT. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for diagnosing malignant tumors in each subgroup was calculated. Comparing the two groups, the diagnostic sensitivity was similar for additional PET (98.0%) and no additional PET (95.2%) groups; however, the specificity and accuracy for additional PET (75.0 and 92.2%, respectively) were significantly improved compared with no additional PET (31.6 and 65.0%, respectively). In the subgroup analysis, adding PET to CT showed an improvement in specificity and positive predictive value for detecting malignant tumors, compared with either additional MRI to CT or CT alone. Additional PET, but not MRI, has advantages over CT alone in clinically distinguishing benign from malignant tumors of the mediastinum.

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