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Abdominal abscesses in patients having surgery: an application of Ga-67 scintigraphic and computed tomographic
1Department of Nuclear Medicine, Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
Purpose:
Early detection of occult abscesses is important in patients with persistent fever after colorectal surgery. In this study, the authors evaluated the relative merits of computed tomographic (CT) and Ga-67 scans in the detection of intra-abdominal abscesses in patients who had just undergone colorectal surgery.
Materials And Methods:
Thirty-four patients who underwent colorectal surgery were enrolled in the study. Ga-67 and CT scans were obtained in all patients. Ga-67 scintigraphy was performed 24 hours, and later as needed, after the injection of 111 MBq (3 mCi) Ga-67 citrate.
Results:
Intra-abdominal abscesses were diagnosed in 16 of the 34 (47%) patients who had colorectal surgery. For CT scans, the overall accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity rates were 97.1%, 93.7%, and 100%, respectively. For the Ga-67 scans, the diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity rates were 91.2%, 100%, and 95.2%, respectively. In addition, the whole-body Ga-67 scans successfully detected two cases of extra-abdominal infection, one case of pneumonia, and one case of cellulitis.
Conclusions:
Computed tomographic and Ga-67 scans offer complementary information and play an important role in the investigation of sources of infection in patients after colorectal surgery.