Unusual positron emission tomography findings in pulmonary amyloidosis: a case report

J Cardiothorac Surg. 2006 Oct 5:1:32. doi: 10.1186/1749-8090-1-32.

Abstract

Positron emission tomography (PET) has come to play an increasingly important role in the evaluation of pulmonary lesions, which are suspicious of malignancy. As is true for other techniques, PET gives false positive and negative results. We report a case of pulmonary amyloidosis with multiple pulmonary nodules showing different uptake of 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) on PET. There are limitations of specificity of FDG-PET in characterising pulmonary nodules and it is important to confirm a suspected malignancy with histology before potentially curative treatment is undertaken.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Amyloidosis / diagnostic imaging*
  • Humans
  • Lung Diseases / diagnostic imaging*
  • Male
  • Positron-Emission Tomography*