[The role of gallium-67 citrate scintigraphy in Crohn's disease]

We investigated the usefulness of gallium scintigraphy and its importance in the choice of a treatment method for Crohn's disease. The subjects for the study were 30 patients diagnosed as Crohn's disease. After intravenous injections of 67Ga-citrate 111 MBq, planar and SPECT images were taken at 48 and 72 hrs. The overall positive rate was 42.1%, and among the positive cases, 78.6% required surgical treatment. On the other hand, surgical treatment was only performed in 18.8% of the negative cases, which was significantly low percentage. However, since 75% of the cases, in whom surgical treatment was performed, showed preoperative positive 67Ga results, positive cases detected by 67Ga scintigraphy were considered to be high-risk cases requiring surgical treatment.