OBJECTIVE. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical usefulness of PET/CT in differentiating autoimmune pancreatitis from pancreatic cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS. To differentiate autoimmune pancreatitis from pancre�atic cancer, we analyzed the cases of 17 patients with autoimmune pancreatitis and atypical pancreatic imaging findings who underwent integrated PET/CT. The PET/CT findings on the 17 patients with autoimmune pancreatitis were compared with those of 151 patients with pan�creatic cancer.
RESULTS. Flourine-18 FDG uptake by the pancreas was found in all patients with auto�immune pancreatitis and in 82% (124/151) of patients with pancreatic cancer. Diffuse uptake by the pancreas was significantly more frequent in patients with autoimmune pancreatitis (53% vs 3%, p
CONCLUSION. In difficult cases, at PET/CT the presence of diffuse uptake of FDG by the pancreas or concomitant extrapancreatic uptake by the salivary glands can be used to aid in differentiation of autoimmune pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.