Persistent splenic visualization on technetium-99m DISIDA hepatobiliary studies

Tc-99m DISIDA is widely used for studying a variety of biliary conditions. It is generally recognized that the spleen is normally visualized on DISIDA imaging only during the blood pool phase. Upon review of our experience with DISIDA, visualization of the spleen was found more common than generally acknowledged. All DISIDA examinations performed at our two institutions were retrospectively reviewed; 95 studies were performed at Institution #1 and 150 studies at Institution #2. There were 138 men and 107 women. Quality control to confirm radiochemical purity included sephadex gel column chromatography. Of 245 patient studies, persistent splenic visualization was identified in one patient (1.0%) at Institution #1 and in 11 patients (7.3%) at Institution #2. There was no correlation between age, sex or final diagnosis and persistent visualization of the spleen. It is suggested that persistent splenic visualization may be caused by an elevated concentration of reduced hydrolized technetium (colloid) in DISIDA.