title: Vertebral hemangioma: "Cold" vertebrae on bone scintigraphy and fluordeoxy-glucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography.
abstract: Bone hemangiomas are benign and infrequent lesions. At Tc-99m bone scintigraphy they show variable degrees of radiotracer uptake and even absence of it. At fluordeoxy-glucose (FDG) Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (PET/CT), hemangioma is one of the causes of "cold" vertebrae, apart from postexternal radiotherapy. We present a woman diagnosed of breast carcinoma, with a photopenic defect at a thoracic vertebrae at Tc-99m bone scan. In order to rule out bone lytic metastasis, a FDG PET/CT was performed showing a "cold" vertebrae too. Findings were highly suggestive of vertebral hemangioma, that was confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hospital Universitario "Infanta Cristina", Badajoz, Spain. mluzovi@yahoo.es
authors.forename: Ml
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Domínguez
authors.forename: Ji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rayo
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Serrano
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Infante
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: García
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Durán