Boughdad, Sarah Meyer, Marie Prior, John O. Fernandes, Victor Allenbach, Gilles Kamani, Christel Jreige, Mario Albano, Domenico Bertagna, Francesco Nicod-Lalonde, Marie Schaefer, Niklaus Treglia, Giorgio 2021-05-07 Background: Physiological focal radiopharmaceutical uptake in the head and uncinate process of the pancreas may be seen on somatostatin receptor-based PET/CT and might lead to false-positive results for neuroendocrine tumours (NETs). We aimed to perform a systematic review and a meta-analysis about the prevalence of this finding. Methods: We performed a comprehensive computer literature search across several databases until July 2020. Pooled prevalence of physiological focal uptake on somatostatin receptor-based PET/CT in the pancreas was calculated on a per-examination- based analysis and 95% confidence interval values (95% CI) were reported. Results: Six studies (684 patients and 829 PET/CT scans) were included. The pooled prevalence of physiological uptake in the head and uncinate process of the pancreas on somatostatin receptor-based PET/CT imaging was 34% (95% CI 19.5–48.7%) with average SUVmax values ranging from 5 to 12.6. Heterogeneity was seen across the selected studies. Conclusions: High radiopharmaceutical uptake in the head and uncinate process of the pancreas is frequent at somatostatin receptor-based PET/CT and it should be recognized by nuclear medicine physicians to prevent unnecessary additional investigations. In addition, next generation PET/CT tomographs might increase the prevalence of this finding. application/pdf https://localhost:5000/ark:/12658/srd1319360 https://susi.usi.ch/global/documents/319360 https://susi.usi.ch/documents/319360/files/Treglia_cti_2021.pdf eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1007/s40336-021-00432-1 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/ark/12658/srd1319360 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess CC BY Clinical and Translational Imaging. - Springer. - 2021, vol. 9, no. 4, p. 353–360 Pancreas PET/CT PET Somatostatin Incidental Meta-analysis Systematic review info:eu-repo/classification/udc/61 Prevalence of physiological uptake in the pancreas on somatostatin receptor-based PET/CT : a systematic review and a meta-analysis http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501