Iatrogenic artifacts on whole-body F-18 FDG PET imaging

Purpose: Whole-body F-18 FDG PET images frequently show artifacts related to medical and surgical interventions. We present some of the common artifact patterns in this atlas article. Materials and Methods: We studied whole-body F-18 FDG PET images of 30 adult patients (17 males and 13 females). Of these, 9 patients had lymphoma, 7 had colon cancer, 6 had lung cancer, 3 had lung nodules, 2 each had breast and bladder cancer, and 1 patient had brain cancer. All patients had a history of some surgical or medical intervention for malignant or some other associated disease. Results: PET images of 8 patients showed artifacts related to implanted prostheses and ports and 9 patients showed artifacts related to percutaneous insertion or opening of catheters, tubes, and stomas. Six patients had artifacts from previous surgery, 3 from previous radiation therapy, 3 from previous chemotherapy, and 1 from changes in glucose metabolism. Conclusions: Medical and surgical interventions can give rise to artifacts on whole-body F-18 FDG PET images. The possibilities and patterns of these artifacts should be kept in mind while reporting these studies.