Thallium-201 scintigraphy in the evaluation of graft dysfunction in lung transplantation. Newark Beth Israel Medical...

The object of this study was to evaluate graft dysfunction utilizing thallium-201 scintigraphy in patients who had undergone lung transplantation. We studied 11 patients who had undergone single-lung transplantation and had 44 evaluations for suspected graft dysfunction. All evaluations included a lung thallium-201 scan and chest radiography. In addition, 42 transbronchial biopsies, 19 gallium-67 scans and 28 pulmonary function tests were obtained. Rejection was defined by histopathology and/or the response to an empirical pulse of methylprednisolone, while cultures of protected specimen brushes and blood with a positive chest radiograph were used to define infection. The sensitivity of thallium scintigraphy for diagnosing rejection and/or infection (94%) was higher than that for transbronchial biopsy (86%), gallium scintigraphy (47%), chest radiography (67%), or spirometry testing (30%). Specificity was 100% for thallium scintigraphy and transbronchial biopsy, as compared to chest radiography and spirometry, which were 75 and 80% respectively. This study indicated that thallium-201 scintigraphy is useful for screening lung transplant recipients for episodes of acute rejection and/or infection. A positive scan is confirmation of graft parenchymal dysfunction and may then be followed by empirical treatment or bronchoscopy with transbronchial biopsy and culture to differentiate rejection and infection.