Figure 3.

A 23-year-old male who underwent Bentall procedure for aortic aneurysm, presented with recurrent fever and tachycardia. He had graft replacement of the aortic valve, aortic root and the proximal ascending aorta as a part of the procedure. Blood culture was suggestive of infection with Acinetobacter baumannii. The MIP ¹⁸F-FDG-labelled WBC PET/CT (a) shows an abnormal focus of tracer uptake in the mediastinum (white arrow). The axial PET (b), CECT (c) and fused PET/CT (d) images localized the activity to radiolabelled WBC accumulation (d: white arrow, SUVmax 5.6) in a minimal fluid collection and thickening surrounding the aortic root graft which was seen to extend along the proximal ascending aorta on the sagittal CT (e) and fused PET/CT images (f, white arrow). In view of the difficulty in accessing the site of collection for confirmation of infection, intravenous antibiotics were started based on the blood culture reports and signs of infection subsequently resolved. CECT, contrast-enhanced CT; FDG, fluoro-D-glucose; MIP, maximum intensity projection; PET, positron emission tomography; SUV, standardized uptake value; WBC, white blood cell.