Enhancing Clinical Diagnosis for Patients With Persistent Pulmonary Abnormalities After COVID-19 Infection: The Potential Benefit of 68 Ga-FAPI PET/CT.

Sviridenko, Anna; Boehm, Anna; di Santo, Gianpaolo; Uprimny, Christian; Nilica, Bernhard; Fritz, Josef; Giesel, Frederik L; Haberkorn, Uwe et al. · Clin Nucl Med · 2022

case_control · Level III

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Abstract

Six post COVID-19 patients suspected for pulmonary fibrosis were scheduled for dual-tracer PET/CT with 18 F-FDG and 68 Ga-fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (FAPI)-46. The uptake of 68 Ga-FAPI-46 in the involved lung was compared with a control group of 9 non-COVID-19 patients. Clinical data and PET/CT imaging were collected and analyzed. PET/CT revealed in all 6 pulmonary impaired patients the reduced glucose avidity on 18 F-FDG and clear positivity on 68 Ga-FAPI-46 PET/CT in comparison to the control group. Enhancing fibrotic repair mechanisms, 68 Ga-FAPI PET/CT may improve noninvasive clinical diagnostic performance in patients with long-term CT abnormalities after severe COVID-19. Although this study shows promising results, additional studies in larger populations are required to establish a general diagnostic guideline.

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