Imaging of Parathyroid Adenomas Using Technetium-99m-Sestamibi in an Endemic Goiter Area

Double-phase single radionuclide parathyroid scintigraphy with Tc-99m-Sestamibi was performed in 26 patients with primary and in 9 patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism. The Tc-99m-Sestamibi-scan identified and localized 21 of 26 adenomas in the 26 patients with pHPT. In only 6 of the 9 patients with parathyroid hyperplasia a focally increased uptake was found. The cause of one false positive result in 5 control patients was an increased Tc-99m-Sestamibi-uptake in a follicular adenoma of the thyroid gland. Parathyroid scintigraphy using Tc-99m-Sestamibi as a single radiotracer is at least as sensitive in detecting and localizing parathyroid adenomas as TI/Tc-scintigraphy.