Pictorial review of 18F-FDG PET/CT findings in musculoskeletal lesions

We herein reviewed F-18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (F-18-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) findings in a number of musculoskeletal lesions including malignant tumors, benign tumors, and tumor-like lesions with correlations to other radiographic imaging modalities, and described the diversity of the F-18-FDG PET/CT findings of this entity. Malignant primary musculoskeletal tumors are typically F-18-FDG avid, whereas low-grade malignant tumors show mild uptake. Benign musculoskeletal tumors generally show a faint uptake of F-18-FDG, and tumor-like conditions also display various uptake patterns of F-18-FDG. Although musculoskeletal tumors show various uptakes of F-18-FDG on PET/CT, its addition to morphological imaging modalities such as CT and MRI is useful for the characterization and differentiation of musculoskeletal lesions.