Evaluation of Indium-111 Pentetreotide Somatostatin Receptor Scintigraphy to Detect Recurrent Thyroid Carcinoma in Patients with Negative Radioiodine Scintigraphy

The follow-up of patients who underwent thyroidectomy for differentiated thyroid carcinoma is based on the combination of serum thyroglobulin (Tg) measurement and radioiodine total-body scan (ITBS). The diagnostic strategy to be used in patients with elevated serum Tg level but negative ITBS remains debatable. Somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS) has been proposed. Our objective was to compare the results of SRS and conventional radiological imaging (CRI) for the diagnosis of recurrent disease and/or metastases in 15 patients who had had thyroidectomy for differentiated carcinoma (14 papillary, 1 Hurthle cell carcinoma) and who displayed elevated Tg levels (10 to 65000 ng/mL) together with negative ITBS performed after 100 mCi. All patients underwent SRS and CRI within 3 months, allowing comparison of the 2 approaches for the identification of thyroid carcinoma metastases. CRI first included a chest x-ray and ultrasonography of the neck. It was followed by computed tomography (CT) scanning and/or magn...