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Updated: May 7, 2026
10:25
Brain Infarct Segmentation and Registration on MRI or CT for Lesion-symptom Mapping
Published on: September 25, 2019
Cerebral infarction on 99mTc-MDP SPECT/CT imaging.
Jia Guo1, Shuang Hu, Haitao Wang
1From the Department of Nuclear Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Clinical Nuclear Medicine
|October 4, 2013
Summary
A 70-year-old man with lung cancer showed abnormal tracer uptake in the brain via bone scintigraphy. Further imaging revealed a right middle cerebral artery occlusion, suggesting a rare presentation of metastasis.
Area of Science:
- Nuclear Medicine
- Neurology
- Oncology
Background:
- Metastatic disease evaluation in lung cancer patients often involves bone scintigraphy.
- Skull metastases are a known complication but rarely present with specific vascular patterns.
Observation:
- Whole-body bone scintigraphy revealed unexpected, marked tracer uptake in the right side of the head.
- SPECT/CT imaging localized this uptake to the brain region supplied by the right middle cerebral artery.
- CT showed a corresponding hypoattenuation area, indicating potential tissue damage.
Findings:
- The observed MDP (methylene diphosphonate) uptake pattern in the brain was associated with occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery.
- This suggests a potential link between neoplastic processes affecting cerebral vasculature and bone tracer accumulation.
Implications:
- This case highlights an unusual presentation of metastatic disease to the brain.
- It may prompt consideration of bone scintigraphy in evaluating neurological deficits in cancer patients with atypical findings.
- Further research could explore the pathophysiology of tracer accumulation in brain metastases with vascular compromise.
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