PET Nodal Uptake after Vaccination

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the overall incidence of axillary lymph node uptake post- COVID-19 vaccination at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary among oncologic patients referred for staging or follow-up utilizing [18F]-FDG PET/CT for different types of malignancy. The ob- jective was to find out whether the patientsʼ characteristics (i.e., age, sex, BMI, time between vaccination and imaging and cancer type) were associated with the amount of FDG uptake. In the meantime, the PET images were visually assessed to identify lymph node uptake in the axilla. For this quantitative study, a total of 58 cancer patients (31 males and 27 females) who had received a COVID-19 vaccine within the two weeks prior to PET/CT imaging (mean, 8.13 ± 4.66 days) between 11 March 2021 and 7 May 2021 were chosen.