68Ga DOTATATE PET/CT uptake in spinal lesions and MRI correlation on a patient with neuroendocrine tumor: potential pitfalls

Clin Nucl Med. 2013 Dec;38(12):e449-53. doi: 10.1097/RLU.0b013e31827a2325.

Abstract

A 62-year-old female patient with suspected insulinoma underwent 68Ga DOTA-TATE PET/CT for characterization and staging. This demonstrated a focus of uptake in the pancreas and 3 foci of uptake in the spine. An MRI of the spine performed to further characterize the lesions revealed the presence of a meningioma and degenerative changes, both of which showed 68Ga DOTA-TATE uptake. A vertebral metastasis seen on PET was occult on CT and MRI. A vertebral hemangioma had no discrete tracer uptake. Awareness of sources of error in interpreting 68Ga DOTA-TATE scans is important in order to avoid pitfalls.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Female
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
  • Middle Aged
  • Multimodal Imaging*
  • Neoplasm Staging
  • Neuroendocrine Tumors / diagnosis*
  • Neuroendocrine Tumors / diagnostic imaging
  • Neuroendocrine Tumors / pathology
  • Organometallic Compounds*
  • Positron-Emission Tomography*
  • Spinal Neoplasms / diagnosis*
  • Spinal Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging
  • Spinal Neoplasms / pathology
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed*

Substances

  • Organometallic Compounds
  • gallium Ga 68 dotatate