SOMATOSTATIN RECEPTOR SCINTIGRAPHY OF MALIGNANT SOMATOSTATINOMA WITH INDIUM-111-PENTETREOTIDE

This article describes the visualization of a pancreatic somatostatino ma and liver metastases using In-111-pentetreotide imaging in a patien t with somatostatinoma syndrome. A 61-yr-old woman with gallbladder st ones, diabetes, weight loss, diarrhea and steatorrhea, immunohistochem ical diagnosis of somatostatinoma (liver biopsy) and high plasma value s of somatostatin was studied by somatostatin receptor scintigraphy. S ix sites of focal abnormal In-111-pentetreotide hyperfixation were fou nd: three in the liver and three in the pancreatic area. This case rep ort demonstrates that in vivo detection of somatostatinoma with somato statin receptor imaging is possible in the presence of high levels of circulating somatostatin, suggesting that receptor downregulation has not occurred.