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A "fat chance" it’s malignant: lipoid pneumonia simulating lung cancer on PET scan

Pulmonary Institute Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tiqva, Israel

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor M R Kramer
Pulmonary Institute Beilinson Campus, Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tiqva 49100, Israel; kramerm@netvision.net.il

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A 65-year-old man underwent lobectomy following a positron emission tomography (PET) scan showing increased uptake in a nodular lesion in the middle lobe (fig 1). A preoperative transbronchial biopsy specimen demonstrated lipoid pneumonia which was disregarded as a false positive (fig 2). No tumour was seen in the excised lobe.

View larger version (39K):   Figure 1  Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) fusion CT scan showing moderately increased uptake in the middle lobe nodule (at the crossing point of the red lines). On CT scanning the lesion is approximately –50 Hounsfield units, consistent with fat.

View larger version (144K):   Figure 2  Transbronchial biopsy specimen showing alveolar inflammation, predominantly macrophages. Vacuoles are present within the alveoli and macrophages representing lipid material (black arrowheads). Giant cells also contain lipid (large black arrows). H&E stain; x200 magnification.