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Significance of Salivary Gland Radioiodine Retention on Post-ablation 131I Scintigraphy as a Predictor of Salivary Gland Dysfunction in Patients with Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma

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Abstract

Purpose

We investigated whether 131I whole-body scintigraphy could predict functional changes in salivary glands after radioiodine therapy.

Methods

We evaluated 90 patients who received initial high-dose (≥3.7 GBq) radioiodine therapy after total thyroidectomy. All patients underwent diagnostic (DWS) and post-ablation (TWS) 131I whole-body scintigraphy. Visual assessment of salivary radioiodine retention on DWS and TWS was used to divide the patients into two types of groups: a DWS+ or DWS- group and a TWS+ or TWS- group. Salivary gland scintigraphy was also performed before DWS and at the first follow-up visit. Peak uptake and %washout were calculated in ROIs of each gland. Functional changes (Δuptake or Δwashout) of salivary glands after radioiodine therapy were compared between the two groups.

Results

Both peak uptake and the %washout of the parotid glands were significantly lower after radioiodine therapy (all p values <0.001), whereas only the %washout were significantly reduced in the submandibular glands (all p values <0.05). For the parotid glands, the TWS+ group showed larger Δuptake and Δwashout after radioiodine therapy than did the TWS- group (all p values <0.01). In contrast, the Δuptake and Δwashout of the submandibular glands did not significantly differ between the TWS+ and TWS- groups (all p values >0.05). Likewise, no differences in Δuptake or Δwashout were apparent between the DWS+ and DWS- groups in either the parotid or submandibular glands (all p values >0.05).

Conclusion

Salivary gland radioiodine retention on post-ablation 131I scintigraphy is a good predictor of functional impairment of the parotid glands after high-dose radioiodine therapy.

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Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (NRF-2012R1A1A2043103).

Conflict of Interest

Kyung Sook Jo, Young-Sil An, Su Jin Lee, Euy-Young Soh, Jeonghun Lee, Yoon-Sok Chung, Dae Jung Kim, Seok-Ho Yoon, Dong Hyun Lee, and Joon-Kee Yoon declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Statement

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of our Institutional Review Board on human experimentation (approval no.: AJIRB-MED-MDB-12-310) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. As this is a retrospective study with minimal risk, waiver of informed consent from patients was applied by our Institutional Review Board.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging, Ajou University School of Medicine, 164, World Cup-ro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, Kyunggi-do, Republic of Korea, 443-380

    Kyung Sook Jo, Young-Sil An, Su Jin Lee, Seok-Ho Yoon, Dong Hyun Lee & Joon-Kee Yoon

  2. Department of Surgery, Ajou University School of Medicine, 164, World Cup-ro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, Kyunggi-do, Republic of Korea, 443-380

    Euy-Young Soh & Jeonghun Lee

  3. Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Ajou University School of Medicine, 164, World Cup-ro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, Kyunggi-do, Republic of Korea, 443-380

    Yoon-Sok Chung & Dae Jung Kim

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  1. Kyung Sook Jo
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Correspondence to Joon-Kee Yoon.

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Jo, K.S., An, YS., Lee, S.J. et al. Significance of Salivary Gland Radioiodine Retention on Post-ablation 131I Scintigraphy as a Predictor of Salivary Gland Dysfunction in Patients with Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 48, 203–211 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-014-0274-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-014-0274-4

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