Central nervous system lymphoma not detectable on single-photon emission CT with thallium 201.
A 33-year-old man with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome had an erosive supraglottic mass visible on CT scans of the neck; biopsy was postponed because of the patient's debilitated condition. Two weeks later, he was admitted with altered mental status; an MR image of the brain obtained at that time showed multiple bilateral mass lesions, the largest of which was 5 cm. Findings on a thallium-201 single-photon emission CT (SPECT) scan of the brain were normal. Ten days later, the patient died and autopsy showed both the neck and the brain lesions to be large-cell lymphoma. This case is counterevidence to the reported 100% sensitivity of thallium-201 brain SPECT for demonstrating lymphoma of the central nervous system.
Department of Radiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas 75235, USA.
D C
DC
Fisher
D P
DP
Chason
D
D
Mathews
D K
DK
Burns
J L
JL
Fleckenstein
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D006801:Humans; D016483:Lymphoma, AIDS-Related / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D016403:Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes