THE ROLE OF QUANTITATIVE TC-99(M)-GLUCOHEPTONATE SCINTIGRAPHY IN THE EVALUATION OF ACUTE UVEITIS IN PATIENTS WITH BEHCETS-DISEASE

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of quantitative Tc- 99m-glucoheptonate (Tc-99m-GH) scintigraphy in the assessment of patie nts with Behcet's disease who suffered from ocular inflammation (uveit is). The study consisted of 13 patients with uveitis and five control subjects. There were a total of 25 eyes with chronic uveitis. Of these 25 eyes, 10 were in a state of remission, and the other 15 were in an acute phase of the illness. The study was performed by administering 370 MBq (10 mCi) Tc-99m-GH intravenously. Planar images were acquired 6 h later. Eye/scalp indices were quantified by drawing regions of int erest (ROIs) around each eye and normalizing the mean counts per pixel by the mean counts in the scalp. The mean eye/scalp indices were 1.87 +/- 0.19 in controls and 1.98 +/- 0.19 in the affected eyes that were in remission (P = 0.23, nonsignificant). However, during the acute ph ase of the illness, the mean eye/scalp index was 2.18 +/- 0.28. The di fference between controls and the eyes that were in the acute phase of the illness was significant (one way analysis of variance, P = 0.007) . The mean value of the index for affected eyes in remission was not s ignificantly different to that for eyes in the acute phase (P = 0.068, nonsignificant). These preliminary findings suggest that, despite pre viously published reports in animals with experimentally induced uveit is, Tc-99m-GH scintigraphy may not be a very sensitive method for eval uating human ocular inflammations.