A novel use for myocardial perfusion scans: diagnosis of bile duct injury

A 69-year-old woman was admitted to a tertiary care centre after suffering from an iatrogenic bile duct injury, diagnosed by the unexpected leakage of bile during laparotomy for a colectomy. On initial assessment the patient was clinically stable, although she remained intubated after her surgery. In order to diagnose whether or not she sustained a complete or partial bile duct injury, a finding that would determine if she underwent conservative management or surgical repair, a technetium-99m-hepatobiliary scan was requested. Owing to a shortage in technetium-99m-iminodiacetic acids, the radiopharmaceutical (tracer) for this imaging test, a decision was made to employ technetium-99m-tetrofosmin, the tracer for cardiac scans (traditionally used for diagnosis of myocardial perfusion) as it has been established that this tracer is excreted in the biliary tract. The imaging showed flow of bile into the bowel, thereby establishing bile duct continuity and permitting conservative management.