Usefulness of Choline-PET for the detection of residual hemangiopericytoma in the skull base: comparison with FDG-PET.
BACKGROUND
Choline is a new PET tracer that is useful for the detection of malignant tumor. Choline is a precursor of the biosynthesis of phosphatidylcholine, a major phospholipid in the cell membrane of eukaryotic cells. Malignant tumors have an elevated level of phosphatidylcholine in cell membrane. Thus, choline is a marker of tumor malignancy.


METHODS
The patient was a 51-year-old man with repeated recurrent hemangiopericytoma in the skull base. We performed Choline-PET in this patient after various treatments and compared findings with those of FDG-PET.


RESULTS
Choline accumulated in this tumor, but FDG did not accumulate. We diagnosed this tumor as residual hemangiopericytoma and performed the resection of the residual tumor. FDG-PET is not appropriate for skull base tumor detection because uptake in the brain is very strong.


CONCLUSIONS
We emphasize the usefulness of Choline-PET for the detection of residual hemangiopericytoma in the skull base after various treatments, compared with FDG-PET.
Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Shin
S
Ito
Junkichi
J
Yokoyama
Hitoshi
H
Yoshimoto
Masaki
M
Yazawa
Kubota
K
Kazuo
Makoto
M
Hanaguri
Shinichi
S
Ohba
Mitsuhisa
M
Fujimaki
Katsuhisa
K
Ikeda
D002794:Choline; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000378:metabolism; D006393:Hemangiopericytoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000378:metabolism; D019292:Skull Base Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D002794:Choline