PET-CT in Localized Oropharyngeal Amyloidosis : A Case Report and Literature Review

Amyloidosis is typically a systemic depositional disease, diagnosed from clinical symptoms and signs in conjunction with histopathology. When occurring in the head and neck, lesions most often involve the larynx, nasopharynx, tongue, palate, and trachea. Primary localized oropharyngeal amyloidosis is, however, an uncommon finding. We present a case of 76-year-old man with primary localized oropharyngeal amyloidosis diagnosed by biopsy and generalized laboratory tests. We compared the pattern of ¹⁸F-FDG uptake in our case with others reported in the literature as a way to differentiate systemic and localized types of amyloidosis. In this case, no definitive ¹⁸F-FDG uptake by amyloid tissue was seen on PET-CT. The results of this case study add to the evidence that ¹⁸F-FDG PET-CT seems not to be a critical tool for the differentiation of localized from systemic amyloidosis. (J Clinical Otolaryngol 2014;25:276-280)