Clinical application of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT in patients with active rheumatic disease

Rheumatic disease (RD) is a group of systemic diseases involving multiple systems, and its pathological change is chronic inflammation of blood vessels and connective tissue. Because ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT can reveal functional and metabolic information, it can be used to semi-quantitatively evaluate the severity and systemic involvement extent of the active RD and therapeutic effect at a molecular level. In this article the clinical application of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT in evaluation of active RD, such as rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthropathies, polymyalgia rheumatica, relapsing polychondritis, systemic vasculitis, polymyositis, dermatomyositis and adult onset Still's disease, were reviewed. (authors)