131I whole-body scan or 18FDG PET/CT for patients with elevated thyroglobulin and negative ultrasound?

Abstract

The aim of this review is to discuss the current role of iodine-131 (131I) whole-body scanning (WBS) and fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18FDG PET) or PET/computed tomography (PET/CT) in the restaging of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), prompted by increasing thyroglobulin serum levels in patients with negative neck ultrasound. Studies in the literature which compared these two imaging methods are discussed in depth. 18FDG PET or PET/CT and 131I WBS may provide complementary information useful for the restaging of DTC patients, and the combined use of these methods should thus be considered to identify recurrent/metastatic DTC patients after total thyroidectomy. The accuracy of 18FDG PET/CT seems to be superior to that of 131I WBS and SPECT/CT in high-risk DTC. © 2013 Italian Association of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.