THE ROLE OF QUANTITATIVE TC-99(M)-GLUCOHEPTONATE SCINTIGRAPHY IN THE EVALUATION OF ACUTE UVEITIS IN PATIENTS WITH BEHCETS-DISEASE

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of quantitative Tc-99m-glucoheptonate (Tc-99m-GH) scintigraphy in the assessment of patients with Behcet's disease who suffered from ocular inflammation (uveitis). The study consisted of 13 patients with uveitis and five control subjects. There were a total of 25 eyes with chronic uveitis. Of these 25 eyes, 10 were in a state of remission, and the other 15 were in an acute phase of the illness. The study was performed by administering 370 MBq (10 mCi) Tc-99m-GH intravenously. Planar images were acquired 6 h later. Eye/scalp indices were quantified by drawing regions of interest (ROIs) around each eye and normalizing the mean counts per pixel by the mean counts in the scalp. The mean eye/scalp indices were 1.87 +/- 0.19 in controls and 1.98 +/- 0.19 in the affected eyes that were in remission (P = 0.23, nonsignificant). However, during the acute phase of the illness, the mean eye/scalp index was 2.18 +/- 0.28. The difference between controls and the eyes that were in the acute phase of the illness was significant (one way analysis of variance, P = 0.007). The mean value of the index for affected eyes in remission was not significantly different to that for eyes in the acute phase (P = 0.068, nonsignificant). These preliminary findings suggest that, despite previously published reports in animals with experimentally induced uveitis, Tc-99m-GH scintigraphy may not be a very sensitive method for evaluating human ocular inflammations.