Impact of 18F-FDG PET/CT with Retrograde Filling of the Urinary Bladder in Patients with Suspected Pelvic Malignancies

The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of selective pelvic PET/CT with retrograde bladder irrigation in evaluating pelvic pathologies. Methods: Thirty-eight patients (22 women and 16 men), with a mean age of 61 y (range, 41– 81 y) and a neoplastic background (most of them of pelvic pathology), were assessed with PET/CT. The most prevalent findings were urothelial (14 cases), gynecologic (12 cases), and rectal (7 cases) cancers. All but 3 patients had undergone previous surgical procedures or radio- or chemotherapy. Twenty-two patients had suspected pelvic pathology on a pre-vious diagnostic CT scan. All the patients underwent a standard PET/CT protocol (from head to upper thighs) 60 min after the intravenous injection of 370 MBq of 18F-FDG. Additional delayed pelvic PET/CT images were acquired with a filled-blad-der technique. Both series of images were assessed by 2 expe-