title: Clinical role of technetium-99m sestamibi single-photon emission tomography in evaluating pretreated patients with brain tumours.
abstract: One of the main problems regarding the follow-up of patients with brain tumours treated with radiotherapy is the distinction between radiation necrosis and tumour relapse. In many cases computed tomography (CT) scan is unable to distinguish between the two. We assessed the usefulness of brain single-photon emission tomography (SPET) with technetium-99m-sestamibi in cases where CT scan was not conclusive. The absence of tracer uptake in normal brain, the sharp uptake in neoplastic tissue, and the favourable physical properties of technetium make the scintigraphic method particularly accurate. We therefore propose the association of CT scan with 99mTc-sestamibi brain SPET in the follow-up of patients in whom a distinction between radiation necrosis and active disease is needed for an adequate therapeutic decision.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, National Cancer Institute, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maffioli
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gasparini
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chiti
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gramaglia
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mongioj
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pozzi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bombardieri
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
chemical_list: D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi