Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to clarify whether Tc-99m HIG (Polyclonal Human Immunoglobulin G) can image and determine the severity of orbital involvement in patients with Graves’ ophthalmopathy.Materials and Methods: Twenty-six patients between 19 and 56 years old with Graves’ ophthalmopathy were examined. All patients received approximately 370 MBq Tc-99m HIG by i.v. injection. Planar and SPECT examination were performed 4 hours after the injection. Visual and semiquantitative evaluations were performed for both orbits by two independent observers,Results: Clinically active ophthalmopathy patients had noticeably increased orbital accumulation of Tc-99m HIG. In patients with inactive disease, and 14 of 19 had no uptake, whereas 5 patients had orbital radioactivity accumulation. The duration of Graves’ ophthalmopathy did not correlate with the presence of active ophthalmopathy and Tc-99m HIG grade. There was a good correlation between clinical classification and clinical activity (r=278). There was a good correlation between clinical activity and the radioactivity grade with r=0.666 (p=0.01). The clinical classification closely correlated with Tc-99m HIG grade (r=0.423, p=0.05).Conclusion: Tc-99m HIG scan can clearly identified clinically active patients, and subclinicial inflammation can be shown by this scintigraphic evaluation. The current preliminary results suggested that Tc-99m HIG SPECT might be useful for the assessment of disease activity in Graves’ ophthalmopathy.
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Ortapamuk, H., Hoşal, B. & Naldöken, S. The role of Tc-99m polyclonal human immunoglobulin G scintigraphy in Graves’ ophthalmopathy. Ann Nucl Med 16, 461–465 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02988642
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02988642