Benign uptake of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose in the gallbladder on positron emission tomography-computed tomography

Riffat Parveen Hussain; Sadaf Nausheen; Naveed Ahmed; Tariq Mahmood

doi:10.4103/wjnm.WJNM_82_19

Benign uptake of ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose in the gallbladder on positron emission tomography-computed tomography

World J Nucl Med. 2020 Jul 22;19(3):288-290. doi: 10.4103/wjnm.WJNM_82_19. eCollection 2020 Jul-Sep.

Authors

Riffat Parveen Hussain¹, Sadaf Nausheen¹, Naveed Ahmed¹, Tariq Mahmood¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Radiology, PET-CT, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, Karachi, Pakistan.

Abstract

¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) has been established as the indisputable tool in the oncological arena to diagnose, stage/restage, and report treatment response for various tumor malignancies. FDG uptake mostly identifies pathological uptake in oncological scans with the tracer on PET studies; however, benign uptakes are also commonly seen. Reported here is a benign case of increased uptake of the FDG on a PET with computed tomography scan in the gallbladder (GB) of a patient being screened for a known carcinoma breast. The benign accumulation of the tracer is seen in the GB to various degrees and this phenomenon may occur as a result of FDG excretion into the bile. When interpreting clinical PET images, recognition of this phenomenon is important to avoid misdiagnosing physiological GB FDG uptake as pathological so as to avoid misinterpretations of the findings.

Keywords: 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose; Benign uptake; gallbladder; positron emission tomography-computed tomography.

Publication types

Case Reports