| Article Access Statistics | | | Viewed | 4388 | | | Printed | 116 | | | Emailed | 3 | | | PDF Downloaded | 72 | | | Comments | [Add] | | | Cited by others | 9 | | |
|
Click on image for details.
|
|
| CASE SNIPPET |
|
|
|
| Year : 2010 | Volume
: 56
| Issue : 3 | Page : 219-221 |
FDG-PET/CT in diagnosis and early response evaluation of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis in a patient with aplastic anemia
CNB Harisankar, BR Mittal, A Bhattacharya, B Singh
Department of Nuclear Medicine & PET, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh - 160 012, India
| Date of Web Publication | 23-Aug-2010 |
Correspondence Address:
B R Mittal
Department of Nuclear Medicine & PET, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh - 160 012
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0022-3859.68639
How to cite this article:
Harisankar C, Mittal B R, Bhattacharya A, Singh B. FDG-PET/CT in diagnosis and early response evaluation of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis in a patient with aplastic anemia. J Postgrad Med 2010;56:219-21 |
How to cite this URL:
Harisankar C, Mittal B R, Bhattacharya A, Singh B. FDG-PET/CT in diagnosis and early response evaluation of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis in a patient with aplastic anemia. J Postgrad Med [serial online] 2010 [cited 2022 Jul 5];56:219-21. Available from: https://www.jpgmonline.com/text.asp?2010/56/3/219/68639 |
Infections remain one of the leading cause of fever of unknown origin (FUO). [1] In addition to morphologic imaging, a variety of radionuclide imaging techniques are being used for imaging inflammation and infection (67-Gallium, Fluoro-deoxy glucose (FDG), labeled leukocytes, immunoglobulins, antibodies, antibiotics etc). [2] FDG-positron emission tomography (PET) has been shown to be helpful in a significant number of patients with FUO. [3] We report a case highlighting the utility of FDG PET/Computed tomography (CT) in diagnosis and early response monitoring of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis in a case of idiopathic aplastic anemia post bone marrow transplantation (BMT). This report highlights the fact that FDG-PET has a value in localizing infectious foci in complicated cases and could serve as a baseline for their early response evaluation. Further, information from PET allowed the interventionist to target a safer and easily accessible site for pathological confirmation.
Ten months post BMT for aplastic anemia, a 35-year-old female presented with intermittent high-grade fever and chills. Complete hemogram was unremarkable except for the anemia. The peripheral smear showed hypochromic RBCs. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate was raised (66 mmHg for first hour). Chest X-ray and sputum examination were normal. Widal test, blood and urine cultures were negative. Chest CT showed mediastinal lymphadenopathy without any significant parenchymal changes. She was subjected to a whole body FDG-PET/CT for localization of source of infection. Whole body PET/CT scan was performed as per the following protocol. After 6 h of fasting, the patient was administered 370 MBq of F-18 FDG. Positive oral contrast (1700 ml of 2% solution of urograffin) was administered over a period of one hour followed by additional 300 ml while the patient was positioned for imaging. No intravenous contrast was used. After 60 min of waiting period, the images were acquired in a full-ring PET scanner in 3-D mode (Discovery STE 16, GE Healthcare, Melwaukee, USA). The CT part of the PET/CT was acquired with the following parameters: Voltage 140 kVp, tube current 240mA. Whole body PET was performed from the skull base to the mid-thigh in six bed positions, each of 2 min duration. Attenuation correction was performed using the CT data and reconstruction of the PET data was performed using iterative reconstruction.
Intense FDG uptake was noted in the right lower paratracheal and sub-carinal lymph nodes, L2 vertebra and right sacro-iliac joint with evidence of cortical destruction. Lungs were morphologically normal with no abnormal FDG uptake. Physiological FDG uptake was noted in the brain, myocardium, breasts, liver, bone marrow, bowel and urinary tract. Focal FDG uptake noted in the right carotid artery and left subclavian artery was related to atherosclerosis while L3 facet joint uptake represented degenerative changes. Considering the involvement of lymph nodes, bone and joint, in a tuberculosis endemic country, a diagnosis of tuberculosis was considered. CT-guided fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) from the L2 vertebra confirmed the presence of tuberculous bacilli. Patient was started on anti-tubercular treatment (ATT). Repeat study after eight weeks of therapy showed mild FDG uptake in the mediastinal lymph nodes, L2 vertebra and right sacro-iliac joint. However, there was approximately 60% reduction in the FDG uptake in these sites indicating good ongoing metabolic response to ATT. The L2 vertebra and sacro-iliac joints showed sclerotic changes on CT suggesting healing of the lesions. The patient is currently continuing the full course of ATT. [Figure 1] and [Figure 2] represent changes in FDG uptake from baseline to after eight weeks of ATT.
Studies have evaluated gallium scintigraphy in the monitoring of tuberculosis. [4] A few studies have used FDG in the monitoring of pulmonary mycobacteriosis and tuberculoma. [5],[6] However, these studies have performed the follow-up imaging at third month or at completion of therapy. [6] To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that response to treatment of tuberculosis has been demonstrated at eight weeks post therapy. This would have potential implications in identifying cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis and tailoring their treatment. Adequate patient care by early diagnosis of disease is the ultimate aim of technological advances in imaging. We have highlighted the fact that PET would be invaluable in not only localizing but also monitoring tuberculosis as early as eight weeks post start of therapy.
| :: References | |  |
| 1. | Gaeta GB, Fusco FM, Nardiello S. Fever of unknown origin: A systematic review of the literature for 1995-2004. Nucl Med Commun 2006;27:205-11.  |
| 2. | Bleeker-Rovers CP, van der Meer JW, Oyen WJ. Fever of unknown origin. Semin Nucl Med 2009;39:81-7. [PUBMED] [FULLTEXT] |
| 3. | Keidar Z, Gurman-Balbir A, Gaitini D, Israel O. Fever of unknown origin: The role of 18F-FDG PET/CT. J Nucl Med 2008;49:1980-5. |
| 4. | Liu SF, Liu JW, Lin MC, Lee CH, Huang HH, Lai YF. Monitoring treatment responses in patients with pulmonary TB using serial lung gallium-67 scintigraphy. AJR Am J Roentgenol 2007;188:W403-8. [PUBMED] [FULLTEXT] |
| 5. | Demura Y, Tsuchida T, Uesaka D, Umeda Y, Morikawa M, Ameshima S, et al. Usefulness of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography for diagnosing disease activity and monitoring therapeutic response in patients with pulmonary mycobacteriosis. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2009;36:632-9. [PUBMED] [FULLTEXT] |
| 6. | Park IN, Ryu JS, Shim TS. Evaluation of therapeutic response of tuberculoma using F-18 FDG positron emission tomography. Clin Nucl Med 2008;33:1-3. [PUBMED] [FULLTEXT] |
[Figure 1], [Figure 2]
| This article has been cited by | | 1 |
Evaluation of Healed Status in Tuberculosis of Spine by Fluorodeoxyglucose-positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography and Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging |
|
| Samarth Mittal, Anil K. Jain, K. L. Chakraborti, Aditya Nath Aggarwal, Lalendra Upreti, Himanshu Bhayana | | Indian Journal of Orthopaedics. 2019; 53(1): 160 | | [Pubmed] | [DOI] | | | 2 |
Value of systemic PET/CT in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of aplastic anemia |
|
| Meilan Chen, Liyuan Lu, Juan Li, Bin Zhang, Junru Liu, Jingli Gu, Dong Zheng, Xiuzhen Tong, Hehua Wang | | Oncology Letters. 2018; | | [Pubmed] | [DOI] | | | 3 |
Hematologic Complications of Tuberculosis |
|
| Shyam S. Balepur, David Schlossberg, David Schlossberg | | Microbiology Spectrum. 2016; 4(6) | | [Pubmed] | [DOI] | | | 4 |
Role and interpretation of fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography in HIV-infected patients with fever of unknown origin: a prospective study |
|
| C Martin,C Castaigne,M Tondeur,P Flamen,S De Wit | | HIV Medicine. 2013; 14(8): 455 | | [Pubmed] | [DOI] | | | 5 |
Role and interpretation of fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography in HIV-infected patients with fever of unknown origin: A prospective study |
|
| Martin, C. and Castaigne, C. and Tondeur, M. and Flamen, P. and De Wit, S. | | HIV Medicine. 2013; 14(8): 455-462 | | [Pubmed] | | | 6 |
18F-FDG PET/CT in tuberculosis: An early non-invasive marker of therapeutic response |
|
| Martinez, V. and Castilla-Lievre, M.A. and Guillet-Caruba, C. and Grenier, G. and Fior, R. and Desarnaud, S. and Doucet-Populaire, F. and Boué, F. | | International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. 2012; 16(9): 1180-1185 | | [Pubmed] | | | 7 |
Risk factors associated with pulmonary tuberculosis: Smoking, diabetes and anti-TNFα drugs |
|
| Ferrara, G. and Murray, M. and Winthrop, K. and Centis, R. and Sotgiu, G. and Migliori, G.B. and Maeurer, M. and Zumla, A. | | Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine. 2012; 18(3): 233-240+284 | | [Pubmed] | | | 8 |
Metabolic assessment of intracranial tuberculomas using 11C-methionine and 18F-FDG PET/CT |
|
| DæSouza, M.M. and Sharma, R. and Jaimini, A. and Panwar, P. and Bansal, A. and Tripathi, M. and Varshney, R. and Pandey, S. and Mondal, A. | | Nuclear Medicine Communications. 2012; 33(4): 408-414 | | [Pubmed] | | | 9 |
Metabolic assessment of intracranial tuberculomas using 11C-methionine and 18F-FDG PET/CT |
|
| Maria Mathew D’Souza,Rajnish Sharma,Abhinav Jaimini,Puja Panwar,Abhishek Bansal,Madhavi Tripathi,Raunak Varshney,Santosh Pandey,Anupam Mondal | | Nuclear Medicine Communications. 2012; 33(4): 408 | | [Pubmed] | [DOI] | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
