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PET scans use a radioactive tracer to detect abnormal growths in the body. The standardized absorption value (SUV) is used to calculate the intensity of the tracer in problem areas. SUV PET scans can accurately identify medical problems and rule out false positives.
The medical imaging test Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Scan uses a radioactive tracer to look for parts of a body that may have abnormal growth, such as tumors. More of the tracer tends to gather in areas of rapid cell growth such as tumors, and it’s this high concentration of radiation compared to levels elsewhere in the body that pinpoints problem areas. The calculation of how much more intense the tracer is at this point than at others is called the standardized absorption value (SUV). Doctors calculate an SUV PET Scan to ensure that suspicious problem areas undergoing visual inspection are accurately identified.
A patient undergoing a PET scan receives an injection of radioactive tracer into the body. This tracer is typically a source of energy such as glucose. Some medical conditions such as tumors require more energy than normal cells, as they grow faster. As a result, tumors attract more radioactive glucose than most other parts of the body. This unequal distribution of radioactivity is visible on a PET scan of the patient.
Although areas of intense activity on a PET scan may actually be cancer or other undesirable medical conditions, sometimes relatively normal cells can be highly radioactive under the scan. An example of one such situation is tissue inflammation. If a patient does not follow pretest instructions for fasting, cells in the body, such as muscle cells, can absorb the radioactivity and cause a false positive result.
Doctors may be able to identify the presence of medical problems from a visual inspection. He or she may also employ an SUV PET Scan calculation to make the diagnosis more accurate. This calculation takes into account scan data only and is not affected by individual physicians’ interpretations of the results.
For this method of diagnosis, each medical condition has its SUV. Individual SUVs indicate how much radioactivity is absorbed by the medical problem relative to the rest of the body. Since PET machines can all be different in how they acquire the scanned image, an SUV also depends on individual car brands. Previous test data is needed for a medical authority to calculate an appropriate SUV range for each disease.
Normal body parts have an intensity of 1.0 in the SUV PET Scan. More intensely radioactive areas have higher readings, such as 2.3 and above, and less intense areas have a value of less than 1.0. Computer calculations from an SUV PET Scan can rule out many false positive identifications and be more accurate in identifying disease than a doctor may be able to. A higher level of detection and a decrease in false positives help patients get treatment faster or save patients from unnecessary treatments.
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