Usefulness of the Detectability of Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography/Computed Tomography in Preoperative 99m-Technetium Sestamibi Parathyroid Scintigraphy for Hyperparathyroidism

Background : To detect parathyroid lesions in patients with hyperparathyroidism, parathyroid scintigraphy with 99m-technetium sestamibi (Tc-99m-MIBI) is performed in addition to computed tomography (CT) and ultrasonography (US). However, few studies have analyzed the ability of hybrid single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) to detect such lesions. In this study, we aimed to determine the usefulness of SPECT/CT by comparing its sensitivity to that of US in detecting hyperparathyroidism. / Methods : The subjects were 108 patients suspected to have hyperparathyroidism (20 men and 88 women; mean age 64 years). Their pathological findings were obtained by examining surgical specimens. SPECT/CT was performed 3 h after the injection of 600 MBq of Tc-99m-MIBI and the images were assessed visually. We determined the sensitivity of SPECT/CT and US, and examined statistically significant differences in their sensitivity by using X^2 test....