A case of pulmonary cryptococcosis showing high accumulation on FDG-PET scan

Abstract

A 66-year-old woman was hospitalized with a nodular shadow on chest CT . She had undergone mastectomyat the age of 64 for breast cancer, and chemotherapy (DMpC therapy) had been under way.
Chest CT on admission demonstrated a small nodular shadow (12mm in size) with spicula and notch in S8 of the left lung. The F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) showed high accumul ation in the nodule. It was diagnosed as pulmonary cryptococcosis by video-assisted thoracoscopic lung biopsy.
It is difficult to differentiate lung cancer and pulmonary cryptococcosis, because pulmonary cryptococcosis often shows CT findings similar to lung cancer and often demonstrates false positive on FDG-PET.