abstract
- Lipomatous hypertrophy of the interatrial septum (LHIS) may be associated with arrhythmias or sudden death. Increased fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in LHIS is occasionally found on positron emission tomography, and has been attributed to metabolically active brown adipose tissue (BAT) contained within LHIS. We report a case of a patient suggesting that neither of the 2 currently known mechanisms of glucose uptake by BAT is responsible for FDG uptake in LHIS, unless a mechanism of BAT activation exists that has not been previously described. This study also suggests that FDG uptake is unlikely to be due to cardiomyocytes contained within LHIS. Inflammation is a potential mechanism, although further investigation is needed.