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Early and delayed thallium-201 scintigraphy in thyroid nodules: the relationship between early thallium-201 uptake and perfusion

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Abstract

Seventy-six patients with thyroid nodules were studied. Initially, 74 MBq of thallium-201 was injected. The thyroid gland was imaged 15 min (early) and 3 h (delayed) after the injection. Thereafter, 185 MBq technetium-99m pertechnetate was injected. Immediately after the injection, a 1-min perfusion image was acquired, followed by an image at 20 min. Increased early and delayed201Tl uptake compared with the contralateral thyroid tissue was adopted as the criterion for malignancy. Sensitivity, specificity and negative predictive values were found to be 85%, 64% and 78%, respectively, in operated patients, but these values were 86%, 87% and 95%, respectively, in the whole group, including patients followed with fine-needle aspiration biopsy. With the purpose of investigating the relationship between perfusion and early201Tl uptake, both perfusion and early images were graded comparing nodular activity with contralateral thyroid activity. There was a poor correlation between perfusion and201Tl uptake. The correlation was even worse in hyperactive nodules. It is concluded that early and delayed201Tl imaging should not be used in the differential diagnosis of cold nodules and that early201Tl uptake seems to be more closely related to factors other than perfusion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey

    Erkan Derebek, Ozlem Kut, Mustafa Yilmaz, Orhan Yenici, A. Semih Dogan & Hatice Durak

  2. Department of Internal Medicine (Division of Endocrinology), Dokuz Eylul University, School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey

    Sevinc Biberoglu & Sena Yesil

  3. Department of Radiology, Dokuz Eylul University, School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey

    Enis Igci

  4. Department of Surgery, Dokuz Eylul University, School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey

    Serdar Saydam & Ozcan Gokce

  5. Department of Pathology, Dokuz Eylul University, School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey

    Serafettin Canda

  6. Department of Pediatrics, Dokuz Eylul University, School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey

    Atilla Büyükgebiz

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  1. Erkan Derebek
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  2. Sevinc Biberoglu
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  4. Sena Yesil
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  12. A. Semih Dogan
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  13. Hatice Durak
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Derebek, E., Biberoglu, S., Kut, O. et al. Early and delayed thallium-201 scintigraphy in thyroid nodules: the relationship between early thallium-201 uptake and perfusion. Eur J Nucl Med 23, 504–510 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00833383

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00833383

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