Evaluation of technetium-99m-MIBI scintigraphy in metastatic differentiated thyroid carcinoma.
Technetium-99m-methoxyisobutyl isonitrile (99mTc-MIBI) was evaluated for its ability to detect metastases from thyroid carcinoma.


METHODS
Twenty-seven thyroidectomized patients with metastatic differentiated thyroid carcinoma, of whom 20, 9 and 12 had lung, lymph node and bone metastases, respectively, were examined with 99mTc-MIBI. The scan results were compared with those of 201TI and 131I whole-body scans.


RESULTS
Increased accumulation of 99mTc-MIBI was observed in lung metastases of 15 patients (75.0%), 12 lymph node metastases (100.0%) and 29 of 31 bone metastases (93.5%). Increased accumulations of 201TI and 131I scans were seen in, respectively, 16 (80.0%) and 17 (85.0%) of the 20 patients with lung metastases, 12 (100.0%) and 5 (41.7%) of the 12 lymph node metastases and 28 (90.3%) and 27 (85.1%) bone metastases. Because of its better image quality, 99mTc-MIBI detected more lesions in the lung (n = 38) than 201TI did (n = 17).


CONCLUSIONS
Technetium-99m-MIBI is clinically useful for detecting metastases from differentiated thyroid carcinoma and deserves clinical application in the postoperative follow-up of such patients.
Miyamoto
S
S
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan.
Kasagi
K
K
Misaki
T
T
Alam
M S
MS
Konishi
J
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000556:secondary*; D003287:Contrast Media; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000556:secondary*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D013965:Thyroidectomy
D003287:Contrast Media; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi