False positive finding from malignancy-like lesions on FDG PET/CT: case report of tuberculosis patients

BACKGROUND: The F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission/computed tomography (FDG PET/CT) has become an established diagnostic imaging for malignancy. However, there are other diseases that can also be identified with FDG, some of them are infections such as tuberculosis. CASE PRESENTATION: In this case report, two patients showed multiple hypermetabolic tuberculosis lesions on FDG PET/CT, with one of the patients having history of malignancy. The objective of the present case report is to emphasize the need to use other differential diagnosis techniques for tuberculosis especially in tuberculosis-endemic countries when interpreting FDG PET/CT. CONCLUSION: By analyzing diagnostic imaging alone, there is a high chance of misinterpreting asymptomatic tuberculosis patient as having malignancy. Therefore, there is need for correlation with clinical data as well as other imaging modalities and PET/CT with more specific tracer in order to differentiate malignancy from benign disease such as tuberculosis.