Indium-111-labelled leucocytes for localisation of abscesses

Leucocytes from eight patients who were thought to have an abscess were labelled with indium-111 and reintroduced into the circulation. The distribution of radioactivity was followed by whole-body scanning and imaging with a gamma camera. Focal accumulation of radioactivity were observed in the lesion in the three patients with abscesses, in the lungs of a boy with bacterial endocarditis, in the knee of a woman with rheumatoid arthritis, and at the site of intramuscular injections in another patient. The use of radiolabelled cells for the detection of focal pathological processes would seem to be an important addition to conventional diagnostic methods.