GRANULOCYTE LABELING KIT BW-250 183 - RESULTS OF THE EUROPEAN MULTICENTER TRIAL/

In 6 European countries a multicenter trial with the technetium-99m la belled monoclonal anti-granulocyte antibody BW 250/183 was conducted i n 775 patients. The antibody is used for the immunoscintigraphic visua lisation of accumulations of granulocytes. The present study was restr icted on the investigation of patients having inflammations, essential ly of the peripheral skeleton (mostly of the lower extremities), spina l column, the bowel, or had fever of unknown etiology. The overall sen sitivity of the method was 83%, and specificity was of the same order of magnitude (82%). The procedure yielded additional information in 67 % of the cases and the treatment strategy was influenced in 35% of the cases to positive effect, even though all conventional methods had pr eviously been exhausted. Human anti mouse-lgG antibodies (HAMA) were d etectable only in about 4% of patients investigated for the first time .