¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT plays a significant role in the assessment of various infectious processes. Patients with suspected or known sites of infection are often referred for ¹⁸F-FDG imaging while already receiving antibiotic treatment. The current study assessed whether antibiotic therapy affected the detectability rate of infectious processes by ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT. Methods: A 5-y retrospective study of all adult patients who underwent ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT in search of a focal source of infection was performed. The presence, duration, and appropriateness of antibiotic treatment before ¹⁸F-FDG imaging were recorded. Diagnosis of an infectious process was based on microbiologic or pathologic data as well as on clinical and radiologic follow-up. Results: Two hundred seventeen patients underwent 243 PET/CT studies in search of a focal source of infection and were included in the study. Sixty-seven studies were excluded from further analysis because of a final noninfectious etiology or lack of further follow-up or details regarding the antibiotic treatment. The final study population included 176 ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT studies in 153 patients (107 men, 46 women; age range, 18–86 y). One hundred nineteen studies (68%) were performed in patients receiving antibiotic therapy for a range of 1–73 d. A diagnosis of infection was made in 107 true-positive cases (61%), including 63 studies (59%) in patients receiving appropriate antibiotic therapy started before the performance of the ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT study. There were 52 true-negative (29%) and 17 false-positive (10%) ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT studies. No false-negative results were found. Conclusion: ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT correctly identified foci of increased uptake compatible with infection in most patients, including all patients receiving appropriate antimicrobial therapy, with no false-negative cases. On the basis of the current study results, the administration of antibiotics appears to have no clinically significant impact on the diagnostic accuracy of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT performed for evaluation of known or suspected infectious processes.

¹⁸ F-FDG PET / CT在评估各种感染过程中起着重要作用。具有可疑或已知感染部位的患者通常在已经接受抗生素治疗的同时进行¹⁸ F-FDG成像检查。当前的研究评估了抗生素治疗是否影响¹⁸ F-FDG PET / CT对感染过程的可检测率。方法：对所有接受¹⁸ F-FDG PET / CT检查以寻找主要感染源的成年患者进行了为期5年的回顾性研究。^18岁之前抗生素治疗的存在，持续时间和适当性记录了F-FDG成像。感染过程的诊断基于微生物学或病理学数据以及临床和放射学随访。结果： 217位患者接受了243次PET / CT研究，以寻找主要的感染源，并将其纳入研究。由于最终的非感染性病因，缺乏进一步的随访或有关抗生素治疗的详细信息，因此有67项研究被排除在进一步分析之外。最终研究人群包括176 ¹⁸F-FDG PET / CT研究在153例患者中进行（107例男性，46例女性；年龄18-86岁）。在接受抗生素治疗的患者中进行了119项研究（68％），时间范围为1-73 d。感染的诊断是在107真阳性病例（61％），其中包括在接收的性能之前，开始适当的抗生素治疗的患者63周的研究（59％）由¹⁸ F-FDG PET / CT研究。¹⁸ F-FDG PET / CT研究有52例真阴性（29％）和17例假阳性（10％）。没有发现假阴性结果。结论： ¹⁸F-FDG PET / CT可以正确识别大多数患者中与感染相容的摄取增加的病灶，包括所有接受适当抗菌治疗的患者，无假阴性病例。根据当前的研究结果，抗生素的施用似乎对¹⁸ F-FDG PET / CT的诊断准确性没有临床显着影响，以评估已知或怀疑的感染过程。