ABSTRACT

The Aim of the study was to determine the time needed for establishing maximal labelled red blood cell concentration in hemangioma by scintigraphic semiquantitative blood pool estimation as a function of time. Eleven patients (eight females and three males) with total number of fourteen liver hemangiomas have been examined. Nine of them had solitary lesions and remaining two patients had two and three liver hemangiomas, respectively. All patients underwent blood pool scintigraphy 40, 60, 120 and 180 minutes after in vivo labelling of autologous red blood cells using 740 MBq of 99mTc. After correction for radioactive decay of 99mTc and back ground corection, blood pool indexes, as hemangioma/heart and liver/heart counting rate ratios, have been calculated. The mean blood, pool indexes obtained 40-180 minutes after in vivo red blood cell labeling do not differ significantly (p>0,05) neither in hemangioma (0,84-0,86) nor in liver tissue (0.55-0,58). In every acquisition term hemangioma blood pool index was substantialy higher than that of liver tissue (p<0,01). The results of the study indicate that labelled red blood concentration reaches its plateau before 40th minute from in vivo labelling. The concentration difference between hemangioma and liver tissue also does not differ significantly after 40th minute of blood pool examination. In most patients blood pool scintigrams taken 60, 120 and 180 minutes following in vivo RBC labelling do not contribute to diagnostic value of the method.

Keywords: liver hemangioma, blood pool scintigraphy, labelled red blood cells

Correspondence to:
Nebojsa Petrovic, MSc
Institute for nuclear medicine,Polyclinic, Clinical Center of Serbia
Visegradska Street 26
11 000 Beograd, Yugoslavia
tel: + 381 11 36 156 14 fax: + 381 11 64 69 88
e_mail: nebojsa.petrovic@kcs.ac.yu