title: Thallium-201 single photon emission computed tomography in the evaluation of suspected lung cancer.
abstract: Thallium-201 SPECT was performed in 30 patients with suspected lung cancer. Both early and delayed scans demonstrated abnormal accumulation in all of 23 malignant pulmonary lesions including 21 lung cancer and in two of seven benign conditions. There were significant differences in delayed ratio (uptake ratio of the lesion to the normal lung on delayed scan) and retention index (degree of retention in the lesion) between lung cancer and benign conditions, respectively (p less than 0.01, p less than 0.05). The delayed ratio and retention index revealed that adenocarcinoma showed higher 201Tl accumulation than squamous cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma (p less than 0.05) and 201Tl clearance in squamous cell carcinoma was faster than in the other two (p less than 0.05). Mediastinal involvement was detected in five of seven patients on delayed scans. The smallest lesion depicted was 1.5 cm in diameter. Two false negatives had small metastases less than 1.0 cm in diameter. This method seems to be useful to detect lung cancer, to differentiate malignant from benign lesions, and to evaluate mediastinal involvement from lung cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kanazawa University, School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tonami
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shuke
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yokoyama
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Seki
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takayama
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kinuya
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aburano
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hisada
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D000368:Aged; D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007890:Leiomyosarcoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D008479:Mediastinal Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000556:secondary; D008875:Middle Aged; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
chemical_list: D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes