Less frequent requests for In-111 pentreotide and its brothers of endocrinological interest

Minerva Endocrinol. 2011 Mar;36(1):41-52.

Abstract

The somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS), using octreotide radiolabelled with 111In (octreoscan, OCTs), is a consolidated diagnostic procedure in patients with neuroendocrine tumors. A higher accuracy has been demonstrated with single photon emission computed tomography-CT, while a further improvement has been obtained with positron emission tomography (PET)-CT, using somatostatin analogues radiolabeled with 68Ga, significantly increasing the number of detected lesions. Although the well-known presence of an OCTs uptake in many benign diseases, when in an active phase, the application of SRS in these patients did not find any clinical relevance yet. In this paper we discuss two fields of endocrinological interest where SRS could play a clinical role. In patients with Graves exophtalmos, the capability to differentiate between active and non-active disease can be helpful in define prognosis and therapeutic strategies. In patients with endocrine paraneoplastic syndromes (PNS), SRS can help in finding the underlying neoplasm, contributing to its characterization as premise to a therapeutic choice. The possible role of a surgery guided by OCTs is also explained and suggested. The incremental value of PET-CT with Ga-68 peptides is hypothesized to reduce the number of unknown neoplastic lesions frequently present in patients with PNS.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Cushing Syndrome / diagnostic imaging
  • Graves Disease / diagnostic imaging
  • Humans
  • Neuroendocrine Tumors / diagnostic imaging*
  • Osteomalacia / diagnostic imaging
  • Paraneoplastic Endocrine Syndromes / diagnostic imaging*
  • Positron-Emission Tomography* / methods
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Radiopharmaceuticals*
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Somatostatin / analogs & derivatives*
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Substances

  • Radiopharmaceuticals
  • Somatostatin
  • pentetreotide