An unusual case of multiple brown tumors due to parathyroid carcinoma is reported. The patient presented with lower leg pain. Plain radiographs demonstrated multiple lytic lesions of the lower legs and a Tc-99m MDP bone scan depicted multiple areas of increased uptake suggesting skeletal metastases. Tc-99m sestamibi tumor scintigraphy showed multiple sites of tumor uptake in bones and a large area of increased uptake with a cystic component in the right lower pole of the thyroid gland. An open biopsy from the right tibial lesion revealed a brown tumor. A large parathyroid carcinoma with a necrotic cyst was removed. After parathyroidectomy and right thyroid lobectomy, the patient became free of bone pain and serum PTH levels normalized. A 9-month follow-up Tc-99m MDP bone scan demonstrated less intense uptake in the pelvis, tibia, and fibulae. Nine-month follow-up tumor imaging with Tc-99m MIBI revealed disappearance of the preoperative uptake of multiple brown tumor.

FDG CoDe PET is a sensitive and cost-effective method to detect primary tumor and lymph node involvement in primary head and neck cancers. It is also useful in differentiating residual tumor or tumor recurrence from posttherapy changes in patients with head and neck tumors.

Hepatomegaly is a common manifestation in Gaucher disease. In some patients with the disease, hepatic fibrosis and portal hypertension are observed. A patient with Gaucher disease with the hepatopulmonary syndrome associated with severe cyanosis and hypoxemia was examined for intrapulmonary right-to-left shunt using Tc-99m MAA. Quantitative evaluation revealed an approximately 50% right to left shunt as indicated by Tc-99m MAA activity in the lungs and systemic organs.

Conclusions: For staging, FDG CoDe PET alone without attenuation correction is not sensitive enough to be used as an independent imaging method, especially for small abdominal lesions. However, it appears to be an accurate method for assessing residual disease and for patient follow-up.

The electrocardiogram-gated single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) measurement of left ventricular end-diastolic volume, end-systolic volume and ejection fraction may contain substantial errors. We evaluated whether patient-related factors affect the accuracy of left ventricular volume and ejection fraction measured by gated Tl-201 SPECT. A total of 518 patients without perfusion defects on Tl-201 SPECT or coronary artery disease were studied. Left ventricular volume and ejection fraction were measured from echocardiography and adenosine stress/redistribution gated Tl-201 SPECT using commercially available software packages (QGS and 4D-MSPECT). We identified factors affecting the accuracy of gated SPECT via multiple linear regression analysis of the differences between echocardiography and gated SPECT. Gated SPECT analyzed with QGS underestimated end-diastolic and end-systolic volume, and overestimated ejection fraction, but 4D-MSPECT overestimated all those values (P<0.001). Independent variables associated with increasing the difference in end-diastolic volume between echocardiography and gated SPECT were decreasing left ventricular end-diastolic wall thickness, decreasing body surface area, female sex and increasing end-diastolic volume (P<0.001). Those for end-systolic volume were decreasing left ventricular end-systolic wall thickness, female sex, and decreasing end-systolic volume (P<0.001). Increasing end-systolic wall thickness, male sex and decreasing age were independent determinants associated with an increased difference in ejection fraction (P<0.001). Adenosine stress SPECT showed significantly higher end-diastolic and end-systolic volume values and a lower ejection fraction than did redistribution SPECT (P<0.001). Patient-related factors affect the accuracy of left ventricular volume and ejection fraction measured by gated Tl-201 SPECT. Modification of gated SPECT measurements by taking account of these factors would lead to reduce systemic errors.