Radioisotope scanning for the spinal cord tumor

Radioisotope scanning with 99mTc-pertechnetate or 67Ga-citrate for the spinal cord tumors was reported. Six patients with spinal cord tumors including 2 ependymomas, 1 neurinoma, 1 metastatic medulloblastoma, 1 metastatic astrocytoma, and 1 metastatic pinealoma as well as 6 patients with non-neoplastic lesions were examined with this method. Two out of 6 cases with tumors showed positive scans and two equivocal scans. This new method is different from myeloscintigraphy and radioisotope angiography as already reported. It directly demonstrates tumor itself like brain scanning and is very useful as nontraumatic method for screening spinal cord lesions, especially in poor risk patient. The usefulness and limitation of this method are discussed.