Abstract
The aim of the study was to distinguish infection from inflammation in patients with suspected infection using technetium-99m Infecton. Ninety-nine patients (102 studies) referred for infection evaluation underwent imaging with 400 MBq99mTc-Infecton at 1 and 4 h. Most patients had appropriate microbiological tests and about half (56) had radiolabelled white cell scans as well. No adverse effects were noted in any patient. The clinical efficacy of99mTc-Infecton depended in part on whether imaging was undertaken during intibiotic therapy for infection or not. In consultation with the microbiologist, 5–14 days of appropriate and successful antibiotic therapy was considered adequate to classify some results as true-negatives. The figures for sensitivity and specificity of99mTc-Infecton for active or unsuccessfully treated infection were 83% and 91% respectively. It is concluded that99mTc-Infecton imaging contributed to the differential diagnosis of inflammation. It is being used as the first imaging modality when bacterial infection is suspected.
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Britton, K.E., Vinjamuri, S., Hall, A.V. et al. Clinical evaluation of technetium-99m infecton for the localisation of bacterial infection. Eur J Nucl Med 24, 553–556 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01267688
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01267688