Potential False-Positive Meckel's Scan Caused by Umbilical Ornamentation

Ravishankar Pillenahalli Maheshwarappa1, Yusuf Menda

  • 1From the Division of Nuclear Medicine, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA.

An 18-year-old woman presented to the emergency department for bloody stools. A CT scan of the abdomen ruled out intussusception. Meckel's scan was ordered to rule for Meckel's diverticulum before upper endoscopy and colonoscopy. After proper pretreatment with H2 blocker, Tc-pertechnetate Meckel's scan was performed. Dynamic planar imaging revealed a focus of gradual increase in uptake in midabdomen suggestive of Meckel's diverticulum. A SPECT/CT was done to localize the focus of uptake. Surprisingly, the focus of uptake localized to the periumbilical region on SPECT/CT images. The cause of uptake could be due to local inflammation from umbilical ornamentation.