- In PET-CT imaging, Standardized Uptake Value (SUV) is used to
- quantify the metabolic activity of a lesion.
- The significance of SUV depends on the
- but the following general thresholds are widely accepted for assessing malignancy:
- SUV < 2.5:
- More likely to indicate a benign process.
- However, low-grade malignancies (e.g., some adenocarcinomas, carcinoids, or mucinous tumors) can have low SUVs.
- SUV > 3-4:
- Strongly suggests malignancy in many clinical scenarios, particularly in the lung, unless other clinical or imaging findings point to a benign cause.
