Open AccessUsefulness of splenic scintigraphy in differentiating splenosis and malignancy on gallium 68 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid-NaI3-octreotide
Author(s) -
Stijn Van Hecke,
Tim Van den Wyngaert,
Bart Op de Beeck,
Sigrid Stroobants
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
world journal of nuclear medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1607-3312
pISSN - 1450-1147
DOI - 10.4103/wjnm.wjnm_1_17
Subject(s) - medicine , malignancy , scintigraphy , positron emission tomography , octreotide , nuclear medicine , radiology , magnetic resonance imaging , neuroendocrine tumors , differential diagnosis , pathology , somatostatin
Somatostatin receptor (SSTR) imaging with gallium 68 (Ga-68) 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA)-peptide positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has been introduced in clinical routine for the diagnosis and staging of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) with high SSTR expression. Although it has high sensitivity for NETs, there are some known diagnostic pitfalls one should be aware of. We present a case of suspected NET where Ga-68 DOTA-NaI3-octreotide (NOC) PET/CT showed several abdominal lesions with high SSTR expression suggesting malignancy. On magnetic resonance imaging, the differential diagnosis of the lesions also included splenosis. Subsequent splenic scintigraphy with technetium-99m phytate showed uptake in all suspicious lesions, and biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of splenosis. Splenic scintigraphy with single-photon emission computed tomography/CT can be a helpful noninvasive diagnostic tool when splenosis is suspected on Ga-68 DOTA-peptide PET/CT.