Abstract:

Tuberculosis is recognized as a major public health problem in the world. However, in the process of tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment, there are still many problems that are difficult to solve with conventional imaging. The uptake of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT is a relatively widely used multimodal imaging, which can simultaneously display both the anatomical and the metabolic information of the lesion. It is helpful in the diagnosis of tuberculosis, especially in the location of concealed tuberculosis lesions, which is superior to conventional imaging. In addition, the metabolism of lesions can reflect the activation of inflammatory cells, and ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT can provide an objective assessment about the stable state of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the activity of lesions. During the treatment of tuberculosis, ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT has better predictive value than conventional imaging in evaluating the early therapeutic effect. ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT can explore the mechanism of occurrence, development and treatment of tuberculosis from the metabolism perspective, improve the safety and individualization of treatment, and has important value in integrating the medical diagnosis and treatment strategy of tuberculosis. The main application of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT imaging in the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis was reviewed in order to further explore and tap its potential in the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis.

Key words: Tuberculosis, Positron-emission tomography, Tomography,X-ray computed, Diagnostic imaging