Cervical and Axillary Lymph Node Sarcoidosis Misdiagnosed as Lymphoma on F-18 FDG PET-CT

Abstract

A 48-year-old woman without any symptoms found multiple enlarged lymph nodes in the neck and axillae for 1 year. F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)–computed tomography (CT) was performed to define the diagnosis and showed avid FDG uptake in the enlarged lymph nodes. There was no abnormal FDG uptake foci in other sites. The result was interpreted as lymphoma. Surprisingly, the histologic assessment of the surgical specimen revealed no signs of malignancy but rather sarcoidosis in the axillary lymph nodes. Many other publications have demonstrated increased FDG activity in different types of sarcoidosis but none had tracer distribution similar to our case presented here.