Paravertebral schwannoma with high uptake of fluorodeoxyglucose on positron emission tomography

• Published in: Acta chirurgica belgica Vol. 105; no. 5; pp. 537 - 538
• Main Authors: DE WAELE, M, CARP, L, LAUWERS, P, HENDRIKS, J, DE MAESENEER, M, VAN SCHIL, P, BLOCKX, P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bruxelles Acta medica Belgica 01-09-2005
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Female; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; General aspects; Humans; Medical sciences; Neurilemmoma - diagnostic imaging; Neurilemmoma - surgery; Neurology; Positron-Emission Tomography; Radiopharmaceuticals; Spinal Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Spinal Neoplasms - surgery; Tumors of the nervous system. Phacomatoses; Radionuclide study; High; Nervous system diseases; Neurinoma; Uptake; Medicine; Treatment; Surgery; Paravertebral tumour; PET-scan; Benign neoplasm; Positron emission tomography; schwannoma; Emission tomography
• ISSN: 0001-5458
• DOI: 10.1080/00015458.2005.11679777

A paravertebral mass was discovered in a 27-year-old woman, while investigating a painful shoulder and arm. CT, MRI and fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) pointed in the direction of a benign mass, but positron emission tomography (PET) showed a high uptake of [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), which was indicative of a malignant lesion. Pathological analysis of the thoracoscopically resected tumour gave us the final diagnosis of a benign schwannoma. This report demonstrates that a high uptake of FDG in a non-malignant mediastinal tumour is possible.