Splenic imaging in a patient with functional asplenia
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 13, 2026
Multimodality Diagnosis of Mesenteric Ischemia
Published on: July 21, 2023
1Department of Nuclear Medicine, William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI 48072.
Abstract:
A 65-year-old woman presented with right upper extremity paralysis and left cerebrovascular accident. A routine complete blood count (CBC) demonstrated Howell-Jolly bodies on peripheral smear, and a liver-spleen scan showed absent splenic sulfur colloid uptake suggesting functional asplenia. A subsequent heat damaged red blood cell study demonstrated a normal sized spleen with preserved sequestering function, thereby excluding anatomic asplenia, vascular alterations, or congenital anomalies in the differential diagnosis of functional asplenia. This case illustrates the use of Tc-99m heat damaged red blood cells as a unique and useful diagnostic aid in identifying the presence and size of a spleen in patients with functional asplenia. It also demonstrates an apparent qualitative separation of splenic functions in processing sulfur colloid and heat damaged red blood cells.
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