Sestamibi parathyroid scintigraphy in multigland disease

For sestamibi (MIBI) studies in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism, some investigations found that the test sensitivity is lower in patients with multigland disease (MGD) than in those with single-gland disease (SGD), whereas other investigations reported that the sensitivity of MIBI imaging is similar in MGD and SGD. The objectives of this investigation, therefore, were to determine (a) whether there are differences in the sensitivity and specificity of MIBI imaging for detecting parathyroid lesions in patients with MGD and in patients with SGD, (b) whether there is a relationship between test sensitivity and the number of glands involved, (c) whether there are differences in weight between parathyroid lesions in MGD and SGD, (d) whether there are differences in lesion locations between MGD and SGD, and (e) whether MIBI sensitivity in MGD is related to the number, weight, or location of the lesions.

This was a retrospective investigation of data for 651 patients with biochemically confirmed primary hyperparathyroidism limited to the neck, who underwent preoperative parathyroid lesion localization using a dual tracer ⁹⁹mTc-MIBI/TcO₄⁻ protocol that included early and late planar pinhole ⁹⁹mTc-MIBI, pinhole thyroid imaging, image subtraction, and single photon emission computed tomography. All patients underwent surgery subsequently. Lesion locations were obtained from operative reports; lesion weights were obtained from pathology reports. One experienced nuclear physician, who had no knowledge of the other test results or the final diagnoses, graded studies on a 5-point scale (0=definitely normal to 4=definitely abnormal) while reading all scintigraphic images simultaneously.

There were 851 lesions among the 651 patients. One hundred and thirty-one (20%) patients had MGD and 520 (80%) patients had SGD. Among the patients with MGD, 74 had two lesions, 45 had three lesions, and 12 had four lesions. MIBI imaging was significantly less sensitive (61 vs. 97%, P<0.0001) and specific (84 vs. 93%, P<0.0001) for MGD than for SGD. Weights of MGD lesions were significantly lower than those of SGD lesions [median 190 mg (10-14 600 mg) vs. median 500 mg (48-27 000 mg), Wilcoxon P<0.0001]. Lesion weights decreased significantly with increasing lesion number (r=-0.42, P<0.0001). MIBI sensitivity for 249 MGD lesions (65%) was significantly less (P<0.0001) than for 249 weight-matched SGD lesions (94%). For these weight-matched lesions, the test sensitivity decreased progressively with increasing lesion number (r=0.97, P=0.006). The spatial distribution of MGD and SGD lesions was similar (P=0.19), and the sensitivity was not related to lesion location for MGD (P=0.32) or SGD (P=0.11) lesions.

MIBI is significantly less sensitive and specific for detecting parathyroid lesions in MGD than in SGD. Decreased sensitivity is not explained by lesion weight or location, and further studies of factors affecting MIBI imaging in MGD are warranted.