Positron emission tomography/computed tomography in cases with tuberculosis mimicking lung cancer.

luorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/ omputed tomography (PET/CT) is a powerful tool in cancer maging. The basic principle is the accumulation of the radioharmaceutical in areas of increased glucose metabolism. owever, glucose is also an important substrate for inflamatory cells. Recent studies suggested that PET/CT findings hould be interpreted with caution in tuberculosis-endemic egions.1,2 Here we reported the images of two cases with ulmonary tuberculosis mimicking lung cancer. The first case was a 67-year-old female who was admited with a history of cough and hemoptysis for the last 3 onths. The computed tomography of thorax revealed a mass esion in the left upper lobe of 4.1 cm × 4.5 cm in diameter. The aximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of the mass esion was 13.6 on the PET/CT examination. Other case was 68-year-old male patient who was admitted with a history f 2 months of cough. The thorax CT revealed a 4 cm × 2 cm ass lesion with spicular radiation in the left upper lobe