Detection of Metastatic Thyroid Carcinoma Through Whole Body Counting

摘要

Whole body counters are not only used in measuring radioactivity in the body for radiation protection purposes but also in the measurement of iron absorption, body potassium and cesium, chronic blood loss, and also in the determination of the effectiveness of surgery, thyroid hormone and radioactive iodine therapy in thyroid carcinoma. This report deals with our experience in the use of a shadow-shield whole body counter in the determination of I-131 uptake by metastatic lesions of cancer of thyroid after total thyroidectomy and ablation therapy with I-131. Preliminary results indicate that the 22 patients who underwent whole body counting after total thyroidectomy I-131 ablation therapy, 9 patients had elevated percentage retention of I-131, 10 patients with normal values and 3 patients with rising values. Foci of I-131 concentration in those with elevated and rising percentage concentration values were seen in the thyroidal bed scintiscans, while the 10 patients with normal values had negative scintiscans. The results of our observations confirm the results obtained by other workers abroad. Our preliminary results indicate that with the use of whole body counters a sensitive method of assessing wh. (Atomindex citation 13:702975)