THE VALUE OF RADIONUCLIDE SPLENIC SCANNING IN THE EVALUATION OF ASPLENIA IN PATIENTS WITH HETEROTAXY

Splenic anomalies frequently accompany conotruncal and atrioventricula r septal malformations. Asplenia is a major factor in the mortality of newborns with the heterotaxy syndrome, requiring an early and accurat e diagnosis. We evaluated the splenic status of five consecutive patie nts with heterotaxy syndrome by radionuclide splenic scanning with Tc- 99m-labelled and denatured red blood cells (RBCs) and by real-time abd ominal ultrasonography. Examination and comparison of the findings usi ng these diagnostic methods suggest that the former has some diagnosti c pitfalls which arise from the symmetrical location of the liver in t he abdomen. This leads to difficulty in the interpretation of overlapp ing signals from the blood pool of the liver and from the spleen.