Indolent enterococcal abscess mimicking recurrent renal cell carcinoma on MR imaging and PET/CT after radiofrequency ablation.

A case of asymptomatic enterococcal abscess was found to mimic recurrent renal cell carcinoma (RCC) on gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and positron emission tomography/computed tomography (CT) 15 months after radiofrequency ablation for RCC. This case illustrates that indolent infection can closely mimic recurrent neoplasm on imaging. The authors suggest that if bacterial and fungal cultures had been performed during the CT-guided biopsy, the subsequent open surgical procedure might have been avoided.