Improved evaluation of pulmonary disease with gallium-67 emission tomography

ABSTRACT

Gallium-67 scintigraphy is helpful in the noninvasive evaluation of neoplastic and inflammatory pulmonary diseases. Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) provides tomographic reconstructions of radioisotope distribution in the body. The addition of SPECT to gallium-67 scanning in more than 180 patients demonstrated an improvement in the already high sensitivity for the presence and extent of bronchogenic carcinoma, sarcoidosis, infection, and interstitial disease. Specificity is also improving as characteristic tomographic patterns of abnormal uptake in various conditions are becoming evident.