Penna Daniele, Quartuccio Natale, Testa Claudio, Arena Vincenzo, Cistaro Angelina, Pelosi Ettore
PET/CT center, Affidea IRMET - Turin - Italy.
Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre, University of Manchester.
Cureus. 2017 Mar 29;9(3):e1124. doi: 10.7759/cureus.1124.
Hibernoma is a benign tumor arising from brown fat tissue. Conventional imaging techniques are not able to differentiate it from other benign lesions or malignant fatty tumors. We report the case of a 73-year-old patient who underwent a thorax computed tomography (CT) and was then referred to our department for metabolic assessment of a solitary lung nodule. An F18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG-PET/CT) scan was performed and demonstrated, in addition, a highly metabolic fat-containing lesion mimicking a malignant fatty tumor in the left great pectoralis muscle. The lesion was excised and resulted to be a hibernoma. This case shows that hibernoma can appear as a malignant-like lesion on 18F-FDG-PET/CT scan as per other imaging techniques, and the grade of FDG uptake does not accurately reflect malignancy in this fat-containing tumor. However, 18F-FDG-PET/CT with its whole-body scanning capability may represent a useful imaging tool in identifying, in the course of an imaging study for oncological evaluation, additional incidental findings such as benign fat-containing lesions that may require a surgical approach.
冬眠瘤是一种起源于棕色脂肪组织的良性肿瘤。传统成像技术无法将其与其他良性病变或恶性脂肪肿瘤区分开来。我们报告了一例73岁患者的病例，该患者接受了胸部计算机断层扫描（CT），随后因孤立性肺结节的代谢评估被转诊至我院。进行了一次F18-氟脱氧葡萄糖正电子发射断层扫描/计算机断层扫描（18F-FDG-PET/CT），此外还发现左胸大肌有一个高度代谢的含脂肪病变，类似恶性脂肪肿瘤。该病变被切除，结果为冬眠瘤。该病例表明，与其他成像技术一样，冬眠瘤在18F-FDG-PET/CT扫描上可表现为类似恶性的病变，并且在这种含脂肪肿瘤中，FDG摄取程度并不能准确反映恶性程度。然而，具有全身扫描能力的18F-FDG-PET/CT可能是一种有用的成像工具，在肿瘤学评估的成像研究过程中，可用于识别其他可能需要手术治疗的偶然发现，如良性含脂肪病变。
