Possible usefulness of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in diagnosing polyarteritis nodosa: A case report and literature review

Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) is a systemic rheumatic disease that affects medium-sized arteries. PAN is typically not associated with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies and has no serological surrogate markers. Therefore, its diagnosis requires pathological findings. However, the positive rate of biopsy in diagnosing PAN is not high, and the biopsy area is often limited. Several investigators have reported the usefulness of imaging findings in diagnosing PAN, independent of pathological findings. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET)/CT has recently been approved for the diagnosis of large-vessel vasculitis in Japan. Several studies have also demonstrated the usefulness of FDG-PET/CT in diagnosing medium-vessel vasculitis. However, no studies have evaluated the usefulness of FDG-PET/CT for diagnosing PAN compared to other modalities, and it is not clear whether FDG-PET/CT is superior to other modalities for diagnosing PAN. Herein, we report a case of PAN and compare the usefulness of FDG-PET/CT with other modalities in diagnosing PAN.