Open AccessSpindle cell sarcoma of pulmonary artery mimicking thromboembolism with lung metastasis detected in fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography
Author(s) -
Koramadai Karuppusamy Kamaleshwaran,
VR Pattabiraman,
Sarah Mehta,
Vyshakh Mohanan,
Ajit Shinto
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
indian journal of nuclear medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.261
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 0972-3919
pISSN - 0974-0244
DOI - 10.4103/0972-3919.142631
Subject(s) - medicine , radiology , malignancy , fluorodeoxyglucose , positron emission tomography , differential diagnosis , lung , metastasis , sarcoma , nuclear medicine , pathology , cancer
Pulmonary artery sarcoma (PAS), although rare, must be considered in the differential diagnosis of pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE). This tumor is highly malignant and the prognosis is very poor. As much as the standardized uptake values (SUVs) at fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET) have helped in differentiating between benign and malignant tumors, visualization of a low-attenuation filling defect within a pulmonary artery on contrast-enhanced chest computed tomography (CT) can be suggestive of a malignancy, such as PAS, if the lesion shows high FDG uptake at PET. We present a case of PAS that showed high FDG uptake on integrated FDG PET/CT and with lung metastasis. Patient underwent endoscopic bronchial ultrasound-transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA), which confirmed spindle cell sarcoma.