PET with 18F-DOPA in the imaging of parathyroid adenoma in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. A pilot study.
Preoperative localization of parathyroid adenomas (PA) can shorten operation time and improve curative rate; it becomes especially important in minimally invasive surgical techniques. AIM of this study was to investigate whether positron emission tomography (PET) with 3-,4-dihydroxy-6- (18) F-fluorophenylalanine ( (18) F-DOPA), which showed very promising results in other neuroendocrine tumours, also helps to localize PA.


METHODS
Eight patients with proven primary hyperparathyroidism were studied preoperatively with PET. Seven also underwent scintigraphy with (99m) Tc-MIBI and ultrasonography of the neck. All patients were operated and the histological finding was used as a gold standard.


RESULTS
All eight patients had a histologically proven PA. None of the PA showed any detectable uptake of (18) F-DOPA. However, ultrasonography detected 5/7 PA, scintigraphy detected 3/7 PA.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that PET with (18) F-DOPA is not useful in the detection of PA in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism.
Lange-Nolde
A
A
Division of Nuclear Medicine, University Clinic Freiburg, Hugstetterstr. 55, 79106 Freiburg, Germany.
Zajic
T
T
Slawik
M
M
Brink
I
I
Reincke
M
M
Moser
E
E
Hoegerle
S
S
D000236:Adenoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D000368:Aged; D004295:Dihydroxyphenylalanine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D006801:Humans; D006961:Hyperparathyroidism / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010282:Parathyroid Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014463:Ultrasonography
D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; C043437:fluorodopa F 18; D004295:Dihydroxyphenylalanine