Indium-111 pentetreotide lung uptake in infectious lung disease

Bilateral diffuse lung uptake of In-ill pentetreotide (OCT) was observed du ring a whole-body scan performed in a 68-year-old woman with Gushing's synd rome and suspected ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone secretion. A few day s later, she was found to have bilateral bacterial pneumonia (of mixed anae robic origin). Gushing's syndrome was finally proved to be of pituitary ori gin. The OCT lung uptake in pneumonia probably resulted from tracer binding by somatostatin receptors on the inflammatory leukocytes. Although the rap id wash-out from experimentally induced abscesses does not make OCT a suita ble tracer for detecting acute infections, the images and data here reporte d suggest that infectious lung disease should be excluded before diagnosing lung involvement by neuroendocrine tumors.