Juvenile recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (JRRP) is an infectious disease caused by the growth of papillomas in the airway. Up to 4% of these cases degenerate into squamous cell carcinoma. We present the case of a 17-year-old female patient with JRRP in which the utility of (18)F-FDG-PET/CT in the characterization of suspicious papillomatous lesions of malignancy is evaluated. Morphometabolic techniques, CT scan and PET/CT scans were suggestive of malignancy. However, this was not confirmed in the histopathological analysis after its resection. The (18)F-FDG-PET/CT does not seem to be a useful tool for early detection of malignancy in JRRP. However, it does increase the diagnostic accuracy of the biopsy as it identifies the most active lesions and, therefore, those most likely to be malignant.
Keywords: Human papillomavirus; Papilomatosis pulmonar recurrente; Positron emission tomography; Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis; Tomografía por emisión de positrones; Virus papiloma humano.
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