Progress in the application of fludeoxyglucose positron emission tomography computed tomography in biliary tract cancer

Table 1 Comparison of 18-fludeoxyglucose positron emission tomography computed tomography and conventional imaging in biliary tract cancer

Parameter	18-fludeoxyglucose positron emission tomography computed tomography	Computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging
Spatial resolution	Moderate (4-5 mm)	High (0.5-2 mm)
Metabolic activity assessment	Yes (based on maximum standardized uptake value or total lesion glycolysis)	No
Primary tumour sensitivity	Sensitive to hypermetabolic tumors, hypometabolism or small lesions (< 5 mm) may be missed	Show structural abnormalities and details. Low sensitivity for early lesions
LN metastasis sensitivity	Sensitive to metabolically active LNs, inflammatory LNs may be misclassified as metastases	Depending on LN size (≥ 10 mm) and enhancement characteristics, easy to miss normal size metastatic LNs
Distant metastasis sensitivity	Efficient detection of liver, bone and other sites of metastasis	Limited by the scanning range, peritoneal metastasis may be missed
Cost	High	Moderate
Applicable scenario	Staging, recurrence monitoring and prognosis prediction	Assessment of anatomical details and local infiltration

LN: Lymph node.