Open AccessMulti-site abdominal tuberculosis mimics malignancy on18F-FDG PET/CT: Report of three cases
Author(s) -
Geng Tian,
Yiming Xiao,
Bin Chen,
Hong Guan,
Qun-Yi Deng
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
world journal of gastroenterology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.427
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 2219-2840
pISSN - 1007-9327
DOI - 10.3748/wjg.v16.i33.4237
Subject(s) - medicine , malignancy , abdomen , radiology , positron emission tomography , tuberculosis , abdominal tuberculosis , abdominal pain , standardized uptake value , nuclear medicine , pathology , surgery
18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) imaging, an established procedure for evaluation of malignancy, shows an increased 18F-FDG uptake in inflammatory conditions. We present three patients with abdominal pain and weight loss. Conventional imaging studies indicated that abdominal neoplasm and 18F-FDG PET/CT for assessment of malignancy showed multiple lesions with intense 18F-FDG uptake in abdomen of the three cases. However, the three patients were finally diagnosed with multi-site abdominal tuberculosis (TB). Of them, two were diagnosed with TB by pathology, one was diagnosed with TB clinically. They recovered after anti-TB therapy. Few reports on accumulation of 18F-FDG in abdominal TB are available in the literature. A high index of suspicion is necessary to achieve an early diagnosis and a better outcome of the disease.