A 47-year-old woman with atypical pituitary adenoma was referred to the neurosurgery department due to recent back pain. She had multiple transsphenoidal surgery, stereotactic body radiation, and 177Lu-DOTATATE therapy. Her spinal MRI showed multiple spinal masses. The patient underwent 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT to confirm the metastatic spread of the disease. PET/CT images showed increased uptake at the local recurrent tumor site and spinal metastases confirmed by biopsy to pituitary carcinoma. Our case presents the role of 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT in patients with pituitary carcinoma.

Juvenile xanthogranuloma, a rare type of non-Langerhans cell histiocytosis, is mostly seen in childhood and adolescence and generally manifests as widespread skin lesions. It rarely shows systemic involvement. Although the cutaneous form is often self-limited, systemic form is quite aggressive. Here we report the findings of FDG PET/CT scans during the course of cladribine therapy in a 6-year-old girl with systemic juvenile xanthogranuloma.

Herpes zoster infection caused by reactivation of dormant varicella zoster virus results in painful vesicular rash in corresponding dermatome. We report a case of a 56-year-old woman with breast cancer who was referred to PET/CT scan for adjuvant chemotherapy response assessment. Her scan showed multiple FDG-avid skin lesions. Blinded to the patient’s clinical information, these skin lesions initially looked suspicious for soft tissue metastases. However, the patient history revealed that she had been experiencing herpes zoster infection during the scan, and these lesions with FDG uptake were eventually confirmed to be caused by herpes zoster infection by physical examination.

A 57-year-old woman with history of aortic and mitral valves replacement was referred to FDG PET/CT before valvular prosthesis renewal surgery. First FDG PET/CT was suboptimal for interpretation due to prominent physiological myocardial FDG uptake, despite patient preparation including 12 hours of fasting and low-carbohydrate, fat-rich diet. Therefore, scan was repeated with IV heparin preadministration at another day and revealed focal FDG uptake on the region of prosthetic heart valves, suggesting endocarditis. FDG PET/CT has been proven to be a useful technique to detect endocarditis, but appropriate patient preparation for adequate suppression of physiological myocardial uptake is important. Heparin preadministration seems to be an important component of patient preparation.