Solitary focus in the liver in a thyroid cancer patient after a whole body scan with 131 iodine.

Abstract A 51-year-old woman diagnosed with follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma underwent a total thyroidectomy followed four weeks later by an ablative dose of 3.7 GBq of 131 I. A whole body scan 5 days after ablation showed an intense uptake within the thyroid bed and a focal uptake located in the right lung base or liver dome. Computed tomography examination revealed a hypodense hepatic node in segment VII resembling a liver metastasis. Histological examination after ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration characterized the lesion as a liver abscess. The abscess regressed after antibiotic therapy. Liver metastases from papillary thyroid carcinoma are uncommon. On the other hand, false positive findings of 131 I whole body scans have been described. A focal hepatic uptake might represent a metastasis (rare in papillary carcinomas) or be related to other causes (cysts, inflammation or infection, non-thyroidal neoplasms, etc.).