FALSE-POSITIVE SOMATOSTATIN RECEPTOR SCINTIGRAPHY DUE TO AN ACCESSORYSPLEEN

A patient with previous left caudal pancreatectomy and splenectomy pre sented with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Abdominal CT and endoscopic ul trasonography revealed a mass in the splenic area. Somatostatin recept or scintigraphy showed a nodular increase of the uptake corresponding to the lesion detected with conventional imaging. A second laparotomy was performed and the mass was resected. Histological analysis showed that the nodular lesion was an accessory spleen. Since physiologic upt ake of In-111-pentetreotide is seen in the spleen, an accessory spleen mimicking a tumor, specially after previous splenectomy, may result i n false-positive somatostatin receptor scintigraphy.