Is SUVmax Helpful in the Differential Diagnosis of Enlarged Mediastinal Lymph Nodes? A Pilot Study.

SUVmax, a commonly used semiquantitative measurement, was not helpful for differentiation between benign and malignant lesions in patients with enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes in this study. Many benign lesions, such as sarcoidosis and tuberculosis, had high FDG uptake, possibly a trend that the size of the lymph nodes seems to have some diagnostic value.