The performance of 18 F-FDG PET/CT in patients complaining with hoarseness

LIU Yao; FENG Fei; ZHA NG Jian; WU Yi-yi; JIA Guo-rong; YU Zhong-fei; ZUO Chang-jing

Abstract：sions and 5 radiation therapy for neck lesions and postoperation .(3) The imaging mainfestation of vocal cords : ① In direct invasion group (n = 13) ,12 cases of unilateral vocal cord affected ,CT showed ipsilateral vocal cord thickening or with presence of a submucosal mass fixed in laryngeal area .Higher FDG uptake in the affected vocal cord was seen in 91 .67%(11/12) .It showed statistically difference in FDG accu mulation between affected and unaffected vocal cord ; ② In Nerve invasion group (n = 58) ,55 cases of unilateral vocal cord affected ,CT showed ipsilateral vocal cord relaxed ,the perform‐ance of vocal cord also applied to bilateral affected vocal cord .Higher FDG uptake in the unaffected vocal cord was seen in 98 .2% (54/55) in patients .It showed statistically significant difference in FDG accumulation between affected and unaf‐fected vocal cord .In addition ,no statistically significant difference was shown in the FDG accumulation between affected vocal cord of Direct invasion group and affected vocal cord of Nerve invasion group .Conclusion Hoarseness can be caused by multiple lesions ,of which neck and thoracic malignant lesions are the most common reasons ,expecially lung cancer or esophageal cancer with mediastinal lymph node metastases .PET /CT can not only display asymmetrical fluorodexyglucose (FDG) uptake of vocal cord ,of which usually direct invasion group shows ipsilateral vocal cord with increased metabo‐lism ,whereas nerve invasion group shows contralateral vocal cord with increased metabolism ,but also show the main rea‐son for hoarseness ,which can aid to find the primal tumor and provide information of clinical diagnosis and treatment of the diseases .