Pulmonary hot-clot artifacts mimicking as metastatic lung lesions in 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography – A case series

Abstract

Significant rise in oncological patients everyday led to demand for 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scan for tumor staging, evaluation of treatment response, and monitoring/management which have become a standard of care. Basic knowledge on the physiological tracer uptakes, normal variants, and benign processes in PET/CT will help in differentiating hotclot/pulmonary microemboli artifacts from metastasis in lungs. We have encountered four such cases at our setup with different clinical history and would like to discuss on its importance in reporting and not to overcall it as lung metastasis.