Scintigraphy with -MIBI in the assessment and the prediction of multidrug resistance in patients with lymphoma

To determine the utility of scintigraphy with 99mTc-MIBI for non-invasively assessment and prediction of multidrug resistance in patients with lymphoma. 152 patients were evaluated (120 with lymphoma and 32 with benign diseases of the lymph nodes). The biopsy of lymph nodes constituted the gold standard. Static images of thorax, abdomen and pelvis were acquired at 20 min, 2h, 3h and 4h after the intravenous administration of 925-1110 MBq (20-30 mCi) of 99mTc-MIBI. The uptake indexes were determined for each time and the index of maximum uptake (ICmax) of the radiopharmaceutical for all patients was also calculated. The index of maximum uptake was compared with the clinical and hematological response to chemotherapy. The studies with 99mTc-MIBI showed values of sensibility, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of 96%, 75% and 92%, respectively. Once chemotherapeutic treatment was concluded, 48 of the 120 studied patients with lymphoma showed complete remission of the disease, meanwhile 32 of them showed partial remission and non response to chemotherapy was observed in 40 cases. The outcomes of the present work revealed that a high index of maximum uptake (ICmax ≥6) could be an indicator of good response to chemotherapy, values of ICmax in a range from 3 to 6 were associated to either complete or partial remission and a ICmax ≤3 could be an indicator of poor response to chemotherapy. The scintigraphy with 99mTc-MIBI was a useful tool for the study of patients with lymphoma and the assessment of their response to chemotherapy.