Analysis of the clinical value of 18F-FDG PET/CT in hepatic alveolar echinococcosis before and after autologous liver transplantation

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in advanced liver alveolar echinococcosis (LAE) prior to and following autologous liver transplantation (ALT). The biodistribution of lesions in 8 patients was recorded using 18F-FDG PET/CT prior to and following surgery. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of the lesions was also measured and compared with the pathological results. The overall hepatic peri-lesion SUVmax of the patients was 3.57±1.21, and the delayed SUVmax was 4.19±1.70. The diagnostic sensitivity of 18F-FDG PET/CT in LAE was 91.67%, with a specificity of 60.00% and accuracy of 82.35%. The positive predictive value was 84.62%, and the negative predictive value was 75.00%. SUVmax values of the surviving liver were 1.23±0.78 after 1 month, 1.15±0.67 after 3 months and 0.85±0.35 after 6 months. Compared with normal liver values (0.95±0.19), the 1-month SUVmax was significantly different. The SUVmax in 3 patients with high-lividity lesions was 2.05±0.72, and the delayed SUVmax was 3.15±0.83; 3 months after transplantation, the SUVmax was 1.85±0.62, and the delayed SUVmax was 2.95±0.79, revealing no significant difference. In conclusion, 18F-FDG PET/CT is effective for determining the biological boundary of LAE and shows important clinical value in determining the metabolic activities of the surviving liver following ALT.