[Pulmonary clearance of 99mTc-DTPA aerosol in patients with progressive systemic scleroderma].
Alveolar epithelial permeability was assessed in 32 patients with progressive systemic scleroderma (PSS), using 99mTc-DTPA aerosol. Immediately after the inhalation of 99mTc-DTPA aerosol for 3 to 6 minutes under normal tidal breathing, lung was imaged sequentially for 30 minutes from the posterior by a gamma camera and exponential fitting was processed on the time activity curve. T1/2 (min) was used as a parameter for the evaluation of permeability of alveolar epithelium. Patients with collagen disease showed shorter T1/2 (T1/2 = 43.7 +/- 23.8 min) than the normal volunteers (T1/2 = 76.8 +/- 8.7 min). No significant difference was observed between patients with or without interstitial changes on the chest CT. Significant correlation was not observed between T1/2 and %VC or %DLco. In 8 cases, studies were repeated in the interval of 3 to 19 months. Improvement of T1/2 was seen in 4 cases, independent of CT findings. These results suggest that 99mTc-DTPA aerosol clearance study provides information independent from other lung examinations, and may be useful for the assessment of lung interstitial changes in patients with PSS.
Tateno
M
M
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Gunma University School of Medicine.
Nakano
A
A
Hasegawa
A
A
Watanabe
N
N
Oriuchi
N
N
Inoue
T
T
Endo
K
K
Sasaki
Y
Y
D000280:Administration, Inhalation; D000328:Adult; D000336:Aerosols; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000473:pathology*; D016284:Technetium Tc 99m Pentetate / Q000008:administration & dosage*
D000336:Aerosols; D016284:Technetium Tc 99m Pentetate