Thallium-201 accumulation in a patient with brain abscess

A 57-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of high fever and generalized tonic seizure. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) delineated multiple abnormal intensity areas. Thallium-201 (201Tl) scintigraphy revealed abnormal uptake in the brain. The imaging findings did not allow definitive exclusion of brain tumor, even though brain abscess was the more strongly suspected diagnosis. As the patient improved, the multiple abnormal intensity areas in the brain on MRI and the abnormal areas of accumulation on 201Tl scintigraphy were reduced, and eventually completely disappeared. A final diagnosis of brain abscess was therefore made. Since relatively few studies have reported 201Tl accumulation in cases of brain abscess, we report here our patient in whom the changes in the accumulation of 201Tl in a brain abscess were observed over time.