C. Aktolun et H. Bayhan, TC-99M MIBI UPTAKE IN PULMONARY SARCOIDOSIS - PRELIMINARY CLINICAL-RESULTS AND COMPARISON WITH GA-67, Clinical nuclear medicine, 19(12), 1994, pp. 1063-1065
During tumor imaging research, the authors incidentally discovered tha
t Tc-99m MIBI is taken up by pulmonary sarcoidosis. In order to evalua
te this uptake, they performed Tc-99m MIBI planar and SPECT imaging in
7 patients and compared it with Ga-67. Six out of 7 patients showed e
vident uptake of Tc-99m MIBI in enlarged hilar lymph nodes. One of the
patients, who had been on corticosteroid treatment, showed only faint
uptake (negative result), in whom Ga-67 uptake was seen in hilar lymp
h nodes although it was less evident than the uptake in the other pati
ents. The lymph nodes were better demonstrated with Tc-99m MIBI. The f
act that enlarged hilar lymph nodes in a patient on corticosteroid tre
atment showed faint uptake suggests that Tc-99m MIBI could be helpful
for assessing the response to treatment. The preliminary experience in
a limited number of patients showed that Tc-99m MIBI is taken up by p
ulmonary sarcoidosis and it appears to be a potential alternative to G
a-67. Further study is necessary to evaluate its ultimate role in pulm
onary sarcoidosis imaging.