The development in imaging of the solitary pulmonary nodules

It is very difficult to differentiate correctly between the benign and malignant solitary pulmonary nodules. about half of the resected indefinite solitary pulmonary nodules are benign. The present available methods are many and each of them has its own strength and weakness. In almost of all patients CT is the optimal test. Transthoracic fine needle biopsy is invasive and has very low false positive and high false negative. MRI is currently not a regular workup. PET has high sensitivity and specificity with high costliness. Somatostatin receptor imaging is readily available and more cost-effective in comparison with 18F-FDG PET. The routine use of somatostatin receptor imaging should receive strong consideration. (authors)