A probabilistic assessment of the diagnosis of paraganglioma/pheochromocytoma based on clinical criteria and biochemical/imaging findings.

CONCLUSION: Biochemical evaluation of PGL/P showed excellent diagnostic characteristics with post-test probabilities that are very different from the pre-test probabilities, thus a positive biochemical test is usually indicative of disease whereas a negative one usually rules out disease. The post-test probabilities of anatomical and functional imaging modalities (i.e. in nuclear medicine) were different from the pre-test probabilities but to a lesser degree than the biochemical tests; furthermore in biochemically-proven PGL/P a negative imaging modality is not useful, while a positive one may indicate only one of multiple foci of metastatic/extra-adrenal disease. Thus, regarding imaging modalities, they should be combined in order to get the most of their characteristics for the localization of PGL/P. PMID: 25840574 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: Hellenic Journal of Nuclear Medicine - Category: Nuclear Medicine Tags: Hell J Nucl Med Source Type: research