Table 1.

Comparison of the baseline clinical characteristics of the patients in the PET/CT and CT groups

Variable	PET/CT group (n = 42)	CT group (n = 55)	χ2 or t value	P value
Sex
Male	30	34	0.98	0.322*
Female	12	21
Age (mean + SD)	57.6 ± 5.2	55.7 ± 7.3	0.275	0.583#
Localization of the bone biopsy
Spinal column
Cervical vertebrae	2	1	0.653	0.419*
Thoracic vertebrae	5	5	0.204	0.652*
Lumbar vertebrae	7	10	0.038	0.846*
Sacrum	6	7	0.05	0.823*
Upper extremity
Humerus	5	5	0.204	0.652*
Radius	2	1	0.653	0.419*
Ulna	1	2	0.125	0.723*
Lower extremity
Femur	4	8	0.554	0.457*
Tibia	2	6	1.189	0.275*
Fibula	2	2	0.076	0.782*
Pelvis	6	8	0.001	0.971*
Number of bone lesions
Isolated	17	25	0.24	0.624*
Multifocal (≥2)	25	30
Lesion diameter (mean ± SD cm)	5.5 ± 1. 8	5.1 ± 2.5	2.683	0.753#
Postsurgical histopathology diagnosis
Primary benign bone tumor	3	10	2.5	0.114*
Primary bone malignancies	19	18	0.957	0.328*
Bone metastases	17	20	0.171	0.679*
Tumor-like bone lesion	3	7	0.803	0.370*

*χ² test, ^#Independent-samples t-test