RESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: Lhermitte-Duclos disease or dysplastic gangliocytoma of the cerebellum is an extremely rare tumor. It is a slowly enlarging mass within the cerebellar cortex. The majority of cases are diagnosed in the third or fourth decade of life. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the case of a 37-year-old Caucasian woman who underwent positron emission tomography-computed tomography with fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose for evaluation of a solitary lung node. No pathological uptake was detected in the solitary lung node but the positron emission tomography-computed tomography of her brain showed intense tracer uptake, suggestive of a malignant neoplasm, in a mass in her left cerebellar lobe. Our patient had experienced two years of occipital headache and movement disorder. Subsequently, magnetic resonance imaging was performed with contrast agent administration, showing a large subtentorial mass in her left cerebellar hemisphere, with compression and dislocation of the fourth ventricle. Metabolic data provided by positron emission tomography and morphological magnetic resonance imaging views were fused in post-processing, allowing a diagnosis of dysplastic gangliocytoma with increased glucose metabolism. Total resection of the tumor was performed and histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of Lhermitte-Duclos disease. CONCLUSIONS: Our case indicates that increased uptake of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose may be misinterpreted as a neoplastic process in the evaluation of patients with Lhermitte-Duclos disease, but supports the usefulness of integrated positron emission tomography-magnetic resonance imaging in the exact pathophysiologic explanation of this disease and in making the correct diagnosis. However, an accurate physical examination and exact knowledge of clinical data is of the utmost importance.
RESUMEN
The objective of this study was to give an overview of the potential clinical utility of [18F]-L-dihydroxyphenylalanine (18F-DOPA) PET and PET/CT for imaging of brain tumors. Review articles and reference lists were used to supplement the search findings. 18F-DOPA has been investigated as a PET tracer for primary brain tumors, metastases of somatic cancer, and evaluation of relapse of pathology in patients with brain tumor after surgery and/or radiotherapy on the basis of enhanced cell proliferation. Available studies have provided encouraging preliminary results for diagnosis of brain tumors and relapse after surgery/radiotherapy. In the brain, excellent discrimination between tumor and normal tissue can be achieved because of the low physiological uptake of 18F-DOPA and the high ratio between tumor and normal hemispheric tissue. Information on evaluation of brain metastases is limited but encouraging. PET and PET/CT with 18F-DOPA are useful in diagnosing primary brain tumors and should be recommended in the diagnosis of relapse of disease after surgical treatment and/or radiotherapy. Semiquantitative analysis could improve diagnosis while correlative imaging with MRI is essential. Limits are due to low knowledge of potential pitfalls.