Disparate Technetium and Iodine Thyroid Scintigraphy

Jeffrey R. Garber, MD
J. Anthony Parker, MD PhD
August 26, 1994

The thyroid scan on the left shows a nodule with increased uptake in the right lobe of the thyroid. This scintigram was performed on 12/7/82 with Technetium-99m pertechnetate. The thyroid scan on the right shows a nodule with decreased uptake in the same location. This scintigram was performed on 12/20/82 with Iodine-123 (arrows show the nodule, 90k bytes). The nodule can trap pertechnetate (and iodine), but has lost the ability to organify iodine. The pertechnetate scintigram performed at 20 minutes after injection reflects trapping; the iodine scintigram performed at 24 hours requires both trapping and organification.

 Pathology on the surgical specimen showed Micro-macro follicular adenoma.

Another Interesting Image

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J. Anthony Parker, MD PhD, Tony_Parker@bih.harvard.edu