Abstract:Objective To investigate the ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (¹⁸FDG PET/CT) in the preoperative diagnosis and staging of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Methods The clinical data of 103 suspected extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients from May 2010 to September 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. All the patients received ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT and enhanced CT scanning before the operation, and the diagnostic effects of different diagnostic were compared. Results There were 92 cases of malignancy and 11 cases of benign tumor in 103 patients. There were no significant differences in tumor size, tumor type, cholangiocarcinoma differentiation and metastasis between ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT, enhanced CT scanning and pathological diagnosis. Diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT were higher than those of enhanced CT (97.83% vs 90.22%, 100% vs 81.82%, 84.62% vs 50.00%, 98.06% vs 89.32%, P<0.05, P<0.01). However, there was no significant difference in the positive predictive value between the two diagnostic (100.00% vs 97.65%, P>0.05). Conclusion ¹⁸ FDG PET/CT could be applied to the preoperative diagnosis of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and it is helpful for preoperative assessment and staging of patients.