title: The benefits of combining early radionuclide renal scintigraphy with routine bone scans in patients with prostate cancer.
abstract: Based upon the rapid early renal excretion of bone imaging radiopharmaceuticals, we performed a prospective study to determine the use of combining renal evaluation with routine bone scans in 79 consecutive patients with prostate cancer. The radionuclide renal scintigraphy consisted of a 1-minute sequence of 2.5-second frames with a bolus injection of 99mtechnetium-methylene diphosphonate followed by a series of 2-minute images for 24 minutes. Whole body bone scans were performed after a 3-hour delay. All patients had at least 1 confirmatory study with excretory urography (62), ultrasonography (49) or computerized tomography (30). Results were interpreted independently and compared. Ten studies were normal. Radionuclide renal scintigraphy was able to identify 45 of 49 cortical abnormalities (90 per cent) with a false positive rate of 4 per cent. Accuracy of renal cyst detection was only 47 per cent (15 of 32 cases). All acutely obstructed kidneys were identified correctly by radionuclide renal scintigraphy (5 of 5 cases). Of 12 chronically obstructed kidneys 8 (67 per cent) were identified correctly. The 4 missed kidneys were small and nonfunctioning, and they were diagnosed correctly as such but obstruction as the etiology of nonfunction was unidentifiable by radionuclide renal scintigraphy. The false positive rate of obstructive diagnosis by radionuclide renal scintigraphy was 24 per cent (4 of 17 cases). These findings demonstrate that renal evaluation combined with routine bone scanning is an effective screening procedure for renal complications of prostate cancer; no significant abnormalities were missed. The procedure is entirely free of morbidity and does not add to the radiation dose from the bone scan. Furthermore, it is cost-effective, since it avoids the routine need for 2 separate procedures at followup of patients with prostate cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Narayan
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lillian
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hellstrom
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hedgcock
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Jajodia
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Tanagho
mesh_terms: D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D011866:Radioisotope Renography; D013669:Technetium Tc 99m Medronate; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014463:Ultrasonography
chemical_list: D013669:Technetium Tc 99m Medronate