Fig. 5.

The effects of corticosteroid treatment on ¹⁸F-FDG and ⁶⁸Ga-DOTANOC uptake in the cardiac region. Left panel: patient no. 4 (with CS according to the reference standard) was dual-tracer scanned before treatment with corticosteroids and after 6 months of high-dose prednisolone treatment (initially 50 mg tapering off to 37.5 mg). At diagnosis, there were multiple ¹⁸F-FDG and ⁶⁸Ga-DOTANOC avid lymph nodes on both sides of the diaphragm as well as accumulation of ⁶⁸Ga-DOTANOC in the cardiac region (red arrow) (SUVmax 2.64, target-to-background 2.54). The patient was rated as positive for CS on the ⁶⁸Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT. Right panel: transaxial slices of the same patient where ¹⁸F-FDG uptake in the myocardium (upper row) is similar during both scans (focal on diffuse) whereas the ⁶⁸Ga-DOTANOC accumulation (lower row) in the basal inferolateral wall (yellow arrow) is completely abolished after treatment