Abstract.
The aim of the study was to quantitatively compare the scintigraphic images of the thyroid and abnormal parathyroid glands obtained with technetium-99m tetrofosmin and thallium-201 in patients with hyperparathyroidism. Forty-six patients with hyperparathyroidism underwent 201Tl (74 MBq), 99mTc-pertechnetate (74 MBq) and 99mTc-tetrofosmin (555–740 MBq) scintigraphy in a single session. Image analysis included the computation of the thyroid/background ratio in the whole study population and the parathyroid/background ratio, parathyroid/thyroid ratio and diagnostic sensitivity in 17 patients who underwent parathyroid surgery. The pertechnetate subtraction technique was used. 201Tl and 99mTc-tetrofosmin showed a similar thyroid/background ratio (1.79±0.41 and 1.81±0.47, respectively, P=NS); however, 99mTc-tetrofosmin showed a higher parathyroid/background ratio than 201Tl (2.06±0.54 vs 1.79± 0.50, P=0.007). Despite the superior quality of 99mTc-tetrofosmin images, both tracers showed identical sensitivity in detecting enlarged parathyroid glands in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (89%) and in those with secondary hyperparathyroidism (50%).
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Giordano, A., Marozzi, P., Meduri, G. et al. Quantitative comparison of technetium-99m tetrofosmin and thallium-201 images of the thyroid and abnormal parathyroid glands. Eur J Nucl Med 26, 907–911 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002590050467
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002590050467