Maseehuz Zaman, Rafique Gooda.
Comparison of efficiency of diagnostic and post-treatment whole body I-131 scans in well differentiated thyroid cancers.
Pak J Surg Jan ;26(2):160-2.

Objective: Whole body iodine-131 ( 131I) scans with diagnostic dose and after a therapeutic dose with serum thyroglobulin levels are the current sensitive parameters to follow patients with well differentiated thyroid cancers (WDTC) after total thyroidectomy and 131I therapy. In this study, we compared the efficiency of diagnostic whole body imaging with high-dose posttreatment 131I scans in patients with WDTC. Materials & Methods: 43 patients, 11 male and 32 female, age range 18-68 years, who had near total thyroidectomy for WDTC (28 papillary and 15 follicular cancers) were included. Diagnostic whole body scan (DWIS) with 2 mCi of 131I followed by treatment with 131I (100-150 mCi) in all patients and aft er 5-8 days post treatment whole body scan (TWIS) were acquired. Serum TSH, thyroglobulin level and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies levels were also measured in all cases. Results: Th yroid bed uptake was seen in all patients on DWIS and TWIS (100% concordance) while nodal metastasis and pulmonary metastasis were found in 3 and 1 cases on DWIS and 5 and 3 cases on TWIS (60% and 30% concordance respectively). Furthermore, patient’s age, pathology and serum TSH level did not have any signifi cant correlation with detection effi ciency of DWIS and TWIS. Conclusion: We conclude that DWIS with low dose 131I is not always predictive of subsequent therapeutic 131I uptake, especially for lymph node and lung metastasis of WDTC. Furthermore, patient’s age, pathology and serum TSH level did not have any signifi cant correlation with detection effi ciency of DWIS and TWIS.

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