Endometriosis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Endometriosis, including details on causes, treatment, symptoms, infertility.

Endometriosis with FDG uptake on PET.

Jeffry L, Kerrou K, Camatte S, Metzger U, Lelièvre L, Talbot JN, Lecuru F

Service de Chirurgie Gynécologique et Cancérologique, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, 20 rue Leblanc, 75015 Paris, France.

BACKGROUND: The value of [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) uptake in endometriosis has not yet been extensively reported. CASE REPORT: A 32-year-old woman was examined to find an explanation for right pelvic pain associated with right subcostal pain. A computerised tomography (CT) scan was compatible with a haemangioma or a focus of endometriosis in the liver. Transvaginal sonography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a complex ovarian cyst on the left. Blood CA125 levels were elevated. FDG-PET revealed a focus of uptake in the right paravesical area. Laparoscopy showed a left endometrioma associated with diffuse inflammatory pelvic adhesions. After surgery and 3 months GnRH agonist treatment the pain had disappeared and neither MRI nor FDG-PET showed any pelvic abnormality. The patient subsequently presented with dyspareunia and rectal pain resulting from a right uterosacral nodule and a rectal nodule. These were resected laparoscopically. After a 1-year follow-up, the patient is doing well. CONCLUSION: Endometriosis can give rise to false-positive results on FDG-PET. However, the FDG uptake in this particular case of endometriosis seems to have been due to inflammation rather than to a cyst. This report highlights the relationship between some of the biological features of endometriosis and some observed in neoplastic lesions.

Published 15 November 2004 in Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol, 117(2): 236-9.
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