title: Dual isotope scintigraphy in stroke patients.
abstract: Platelet scintigraphy is a useful technique to detect atherosclerotic lesions of the neck vessels in stroke patients. The habitual one isotope technique causes false positive and false negative results due to circulating platelet-bound activity. To eliminate these confusing results we performed a dual isotope technique on 20 stroke patients. The new method consists of simultaneous injections of 111-Indium labelled blood platelets and 99mTc labelled red cells, and achieves a calculation of the ratio 111-In/99mTc. Thus the subtraction of the red cell blood flow image can render a pure thrombus formation visible. The habitual visually evaluated one isotope scintigraphy showed positive scans in 11 out of 20 patients, whereas under dual isotope scintigraphy 3 patients showed no 111-Indium excess after subtraction of the red cell image; they can thus be qualified as false positive. In the case of another patient with a visually negative image a thrombus formation could be observed after the subtraction procedure. It seems, that the dual isotope technique in platelet scintigraphy is a valuable refinement on the way to verifiable results.
mesh_terms: D001792:Blood Platelets; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004912:Erythrocytes; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007204:Indium; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D008722:Methods; D011868:Radioisotopes; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D013667:Technetium
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes; D007204:Indium; D013667:Technetium