Doctor-Patient Ratios and Acute Medical Admissions: A Simple Solution for an Important Problem!

www.ums.ac.uk FDG will be metabolised and replaced by unlabelled glucose. If a malignant cell is present, the continued FDG uptake between scans results in higher intensity of retained FDG at 4 hours. Inflammatory cells, which retain normal glucose-6-phosphatase activity, will have decreased signal. In our experience, a rise in SUVmean of 30% correlates with malignant disease, with no increase suggesting benign diagnosis. In the presence of infection satellite lesions may be missed, thus understaging the disease, with possible unnecessary non-curative surgery. Despite additional cost, a washout study can alter the management strategy of patients.