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Comparison of 99mTc Pertechnetate Thyroid Uptake Rates by Gamma Probe and Gamma Camera Methods for Differentiating Graves’ Disease and Thyroiditis

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Abstract

Background

Technetium-99 m (99mTc) pertechnetate thyroid uptake rate can be measured with a gamma probe or gamma camera. This study was performed to compare their diagnostic accuracy for evaluating patients with thyrotoxicosis.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed 99mTc pertechnetate thyroid uptake rate records of patients by both gamma probe and camera methods at a tertiary center in Korea from November 2019 to June 2020. We determined the normal reference ranges of thyroid uptake rate by two methods and compared both methods for differentiating Graves’ disease and thyroiditis in patients with thyrotoxicosis by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.

Results

A total of 371 patients (euthyroid 89, Graves 167, and thyroiditis 115) were included. The normal reference range for thyroid uptake rate in euthyroid patients was 0.3–1.9% and 2.0–4.7% for the camera and probe methods, respectively. For differentiating Graves’ disease and thyroiditis, the area under the curve of the camera method (0.988) was significantly greater than that (0.975) of the probe method (p = 0.030). The sensitivity and specificity for the probe method were 92.2% and 91.3%, respectively, with a cut-off value of 3.0%. Those for the camera method were 93.4% and 94.8%, respectively, with a cut-off value of 0.7%.

Conclusion

99mTc pertechnetate thyroid uptake rate measured by the camera method had higher diagnostic accuracy than the probe method for evaluating patients with thyrotoxicosis. Considering the diagnostic accuracy and patient convenience, the thyroid uptake rate measured by the camera method would be a good substitute for the probe method.

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Availability of Data and Material

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number HI18C2383).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, 05505, Republic of Korea

    Meihua Jin, Jonghwa Ahn, Min Ji Jeon, Won Gu Kim, Tae Yong Kim, Won Bae Kim & Young Kee Shong

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul, 05505, Republic of Korea

    Seong-gil Jo, Jangwon Park & Jin-Sook Ryu

Authors
  1. Meihua Jin
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  2. Jonghwa Ahn
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  5. Min Ji Jeon
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  10. Jin-Sook Ryu
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Contributions

The study was designed by Jin-Sook Ryu. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Jonghwa Ahn, Seong-gil Jo, Jangwon Park, Min Ji Jeon, Won Gu Kim, Tae Yong Kim, Won Bae Kim, and Young Kee Shong. The data analysis was performed by Meihua Jin. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Meihua Jin and all authors commend on previous version of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jin-Sook Ryu.

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Conflict of Interest

Author Meihua Jin, Author Jonghwa Ahn, Author Seong-gil Jo, Author Jangwon Park, Author Min Ji Jeon, Author Won Gu Kim, Author Tae Yong Kim, Author Won Bae Kim, Author Young Kee Shong, and Author Jin-Sook Ryu declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

The present study was approved by institutional review board of the Asan Medical Center (IBR No: 2020–1708), and informed was waived due to retrospective study design. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the Helsinki declaration as revised in 2013 and its later amendments.

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Informed consent providing clearance for the use of stored material, data, and their publication after anonymization was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Jin, M., Ahn, J., Jo, Sg. et al. Comparison of 99mTc Pertechnetate Thyroid Uptake Rates by Gamma Probe and Gamma Camera Methods for Differentiating Graves’ Disease and Thyroiditis. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 56, 42–51 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-021-00734-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-021-00734-2

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