18F-Fluorocholine PET/CT Finding of a Vertebral Hemangioma

The uptake of F-fluorocholine (FCH), a radiopharmaceutical used to study patients with prostate cancer, follow both the phosphorylcholine and acetylcholine synthesis. FCH uptake is not specific of neoplastic cells because phospholipids are a structural constituent of the membrane of all cells.

Thus, PET/CT with FCH show several areas of physiologic uptake. The skeleton concentrates only mild amounts of FCH, thus a diffuse faint uptake of the radiopharmaceutical is present at a PET/CT study. Herein we present the case of a patient in which PET/CT evidenced a sharply defined vertebral "cold" area of reduced FCH uptake corresponding to a vertebral hemangioma.

Clinical nuclear medicine. 2016 Apr 27 [Epub ahead of print]

Giordano Savelli, Valentina Perotti, Edoardo Rosso, Claudio Pizzocaro, Silvia Magnaldi

From the Fondazione Poliambulanza Istituto Ospedaliero, Brescia, Italy.