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Basso C, Colapinto A, Vicennati V, Gambineri A, Pelusi C, Di Dalmazi G, Rizzini EL, Tabacchi E, Golemi A, Calderoni L, Fanti S, Pagotto U, Repaci A. Radioiodine whole body scan pitfalls in differentiated thyroid cancer. Endocrine 2024:10.1007/s12020-024-03754-y. [PMID: 38498129 DOI: 10.1007/s12020-024-03754-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 02/17/2024] [Indexed: 03/20/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE whole body scan (WBS) performed following diagnostic or therapeutic administration of I-131 is useful in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma. However, it can be falsely positive in various circumstances. We aimed to report a series of pitfalls in a clinical perspective. METHODS A search in the database PubMed utilizing the following terms: "false radioiodine uptake" and "false positive iodine 131 scan" has been made in January 2023. Among the 346 studies screened, 230 were included in this review, with a total of 370 cases collected. Physiological uptakes were excluded. For each patient, sex, age, dose of I-131 administered, region and specific organ of uptake and cause of false uptake were evaluated. RESULTS 370 cases of false radioiodine uptake were reported, 19.1% in the head-neck region, 34.2% in the chest, 14.8% in the abdomen, 20.8% in the pelvis, and 11.1% in the soft tissues and skeletal system. The origin of false radioiodine uptake was referred to non-tumoral diseases in 205/370 cases (55.1%), benign tumors in 108/370 cases (29.5%), malignant tumors in 25/370 cases (6.7%), and other causes in 32/370 cases (8.7%). CONCLUSIONS WBS is useful in the follow-up of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma, however it can be falsely positive in various circumstances. For this reason, it is critically important to correlate the scintigraphic result with patient's medical history, serum thyroglobulin levels, additional imaging studies and cytologic and/or histologic result.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristina Basso
- Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes Prevention and Care, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Alessandra Colapinto
- Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes Prevention and Care, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Valentina Vicennati
- Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes Prevention and Care, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Alessandra Gambineri
- Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes Prevention and Care, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Carla Pelusi
- Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes Prevention and Care, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Guido Di Dalmazi
- Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes Prevention and Care, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Elisa Lodi Rizzini
- Radiation Oncology, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Elena Tabacchi
- Nuclear Medicine, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Arber Golemi
- Nuclear Medicine, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Letizia Calderoni
- Nuclear Medicine, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Stefano Fanti
- Nuclear Medicine, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Uberto Pagotto
- Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes Prevention and Care, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Andrea Repaci
- Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes Prevention and Care, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
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Singh P, Parida GK, Singhal T, Kumar P, Emerson R, Agrawal K. False-Positive Radioiodine Uptake in the Cervix in a Patient with Thyroid Cancer. Indian J Nucl Med 2023; 38:270-272. [PMID: 38046958 PMCID: PMC10693371 DOI: 10.4103/ijnm.ijnm_34_23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2023] [Accepted: 03/30/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Radioactive iodine (RAI) accumulation is commonly used for the detection of metastatic disease posttotal thyroidectomy. However, false-positive results have been reported due to abnormal RAI accumulation in some benign pathologies apart from metastatic sites. Here, we present one such case where false-positive I-131 uptake in the pelvis which localized to the cervix and was attributed to menstruation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Parneet Singh
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
| | - Girish Kumar Parida
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
| | - Tejasvini Singhal
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
| | - Pramit Kumar
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
| | - Ralph Emerson
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
| | - Kanhaiyalal Agrawal
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
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Barbaro D, Campennì A, Forleo R, Lapi P. False-positive radioiodine uptake after radioiodine treatment in differentiated thyroid cancer. Endocrine 2023:10.1007/s12020-023-03338-2. [PMID: 36928601 PMCID: PMC10018599 DOI: 10.1007/s12020-023-03338-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE False-positive radioiodine uptake can sometimes be observed with post-radioiodine treatment (RIT) whole body scanning. Radioiodine pitfall has often been reported as being caused by benign or inflammatory disease, or, in some cases, by tumor lesions. This paper reviews the possible causes of such false-positive imaging, and suggests possible reasons for suspecting these pitfalls. METHODS AND RESULTS Online databases, including MEDLINE (via PubMed), Embase, ISI Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Scopus, were systematically examined, using different keyword combinations: "radioiodine false-positive imaging", "131 I false-positive imaging" and " RAI false-positive imaging". An illustrative case was described. Excluding cases in which SPECT/CT was not performed, a total of 18 papers was found: 17 case reports and one series regarding false-positive iodine-131 uptake after RIT. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of radioiodine pitfall was significantly reduced through the use of SPECT/CT imaging, though its possible presence has always to be taken into account. Inflammation, passive iodine accumulation, other tumors, and, sometimes, unknown causes can all potentially generate false-positive imaging. Missing detection of false-positive imaging could result in over-staging and inappropriate RIT or it could lead to the non-detection of other cancers. We examine the reasons for these possible pitfalls.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Alfredo Campennì
- Nuclear Medicine Unit, Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morpho-Functional Imaging, University of Messina, 98121, Messina, Italy
| | | | - Paola Lapi
- U.O Endocrinology ASL North West, Tuscany, Italy
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Kavitha M, Lee CH, Shibudas K, Kurita T, Ahn BC. Deep learning enables automated localization of the metastatic lymph node for thyroid cancer on 131I post-ablation whole-body planar scans. Sci Rep 2020; 10:7738. [PMID: 32385375 PMCID: PMC7211007 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-64455-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2019] [Accepted: 04/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The accurate detection of radioactive iodine-avid lymph node (LN) metastasis on 131I post-ablation whole-body planar scans (RxWBSs) is important in tracking the progression of the metastatic lymph nodes (mLNs) of patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). However, severe noise artifacts and the indiscernible location of the mLN from adjacent tissues with similar gray-scale values make clinical decisions extremely challenging. This study aims (i) to develop a multilayer fully connected deep network (MFDN) for the automatic recognition of mLNs from thyroid remnant tissue by utilizing the dataset of RxWBSs and (ii) to evaluate its diagnostic performance using post-ablation single-photon emission computed tomography. Image patches focused on the mLN and remnant tissues along with their variations of probability of pixel positions were fed as inputs to the network. With this efficient automatic approach, we achieved a high F1-score and outperformed the physician score (P < 0.001) in detecting mLNs. Competitive segmentation networks on RxWBS displayed moderate performance for the mLN but remained robust for the remnant tissue. Our results demonstrated that the generalization performance with the multiple layers by replicating signal transmission overcome the constraint of local minimum optimization, it can be suitable to localize the unstable location of mLN region on RxWBS and therefore MFDN can be useful in clinical decision-making to track mLN progression for PTC.
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Affiliation(s)
- MuthuSubash Kavitha
- Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, South Korea
| | - Chang-Hee Lee
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, South Korea
| | | | - Takio Kurita
- Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.
| | - Byeong-Cheol Ahn
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, South Korea.
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Bourogianni O, Pagonidis K, Stathaki M, Tsaroucha A, Papadaki E, Koukouraki S. Pleuropericardial Cyst Mimicking a Metastasis of Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma on Whole-Body Iodine-131 Scan: a Case Report. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2019; 53:361-365. [PMID: 31723367 DOI: 10.1007/s13139-019-00604-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2019] [Revised: 05/02/2019] [Accepted: 07/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Post-therapeutic whole-body scan (WBS) with I-131 has been widely used for the follow-up of patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). Although the sensitivity of WBS with I-131 in detection of functioning thyroid tissues is high, its specificity is low. So, a further evaluation is required in cases of unexpected findings. The purpose of the study was to demonstrate that awareness of the potential pitfalls of WBS in DTC, knowledge of physiology and characteristics of radioiodine uptake, and correlation with other imaging modalities are needed to avoid incorrect management of patients with DTC. This is a case report of a 49-year-old woman with an unexpected area of increased I-131 uptake in the posterior lower chest, which was finally diagnosed as a pleuropericardial cyst. Due to the false-positive uptake of I-131 in the chest, an accurate interpretation of the scintigraphic findings should be made.
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Affiliation(s)
- O Bourogianni
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
| | - K Pagonidis
- 2Department of Radiology, University of Crete Medical School, Heraklion, Greece
| | - M Stathaki
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
| | - A Tsaroucha
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
| | - E Papadaki
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
| | - S Koukouraki
- 3Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Crete Medical School, Heraklion, Greece
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Almohamad FA, Ahmad T, Ahmad B, Hussain K, Hadid L, Zein M, Ahmad M. False-positive radioiodine accumulation in a huge pelvic mass after thyroidectomy for papillary carcinoma, a case report from Syria. J Surg Case Rep 2018; 2018:rjy028. [PMID: 29511526 PMCID: PMC5829570 DOI: 10.1093/jscr/rjy028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2017] [Accepted: 02/03/2018] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Iodine has always been connected to thyroid gland, and the fact that thyroid tissue traps, organificates and stores iodine more than other tissues is well known, hence the use of radioiodine as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool for thyroid disorders. However, false-positive cases do occur. We present a case of a 34-year-old patient who underwent total thyroidectomy for papillary carcinoma. Results of follow up TSH, thyroglobulin and thyroglobulin antibody tests after surgery lead to two rounds of radioactive iodine. After that, a radioiodine whole-body scan showed high uptake in the pelvis above bladder. Computed tomography scan showed a pelvic heterogeneous mass with some calcifications. Surgical removal and subsequent pathology confirmed the absence of metastasis. The final pathological diagnosis was serous cystadenoma, endometriosis cyst and leiomyoma. As the real cause behind false-positive iodine uptake by these tissues has yet to be determined, careful assessment should be considered in any suspicious case.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Tareq Ahmad
- Faculty of Medicine, Surgery Department, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria
| | - Basel Ahmad
- Faculty of Medicine, Surgery Department, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria
| | | | - Lama Hadid
- Endocrinology Department, Al-Assad University Hospital, Damascus, Syria
| | - Majdi Zein
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Al-Assad University Hospital, Damascus, Syria
| | - Mohamad Ahmad
- Faculty of Medicine, Surgery Department, Damascus University, Liver Surgery and Transplant Team in Al-Assad University Hospital, Damascus, Syria
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Çayır D, Araz M, Apaydın M, Çakal E. Inguinal Endometriosis Visualized on I-131 Whole Body Scan. Mol Imaging Radionucl Ther 2018; 27:52-54. [PMID: 29393056 PMCID: PMC5790976 DOI: 10.4274/mirt.77044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
We present a rare case with inguinal iodine-131 (I-131) uptake on whole body scan. The patient was suffering from a painful right inguinal mass during menstrual period, which was later sonographically and histopathologically confirmed to be an inguinal focus of endometriosis. Endometriosis is a previously reported site of radioiodine uptake and detection of radioiodine uptake in the inguinal region has also been described. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of I-131 uptake in an inguinal endometriosis focus. History and physical examination of the patient are both very important in identifying the etiology of the ectopic uptake sites on I-131 whole body scan, and inguinal endometriosis should be kept in mind while reporting inguinal radioiodine uptake on I-131 whole body scan.
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Affiliation(s)
- Derya Çayır
- University of Health Sciences, Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Nuclear Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Mine Araz
- University of Health Sciences, Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Nuclear Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Mahmut Apaydın
- University of Health Sciences, Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Erman Çakal
- University of Health Sciences, Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Ankara, Turkey
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