[A case of bilateral adrenal neuroblastomas detected by bone scintigraphy]

A 7-month-old girl, who had been resected the left adrenal neuroblastoma 20 days ago, underwent bone scintigraphy with 90mTc-HMDP to survey bone metastases. The bone scan demonstrated avid uptake in the right adrenal gland, in which 123I-MIBG also accumulated. However, the degree of 123-I-MIBG uptake in the right adrenal gland was not necessary higher compared to that in the normal adrenal glands in 7 patients after resection of hemilateral neuroblastomas. Reviewing the preoperative abdominal CT, a swelling of the right adrenal gland had been overlooked because of the small size of 10 x 12 mm in diameter. The follow-up CT after surgery revealed a more growth of the right adrenal gland, accompanied by reelevation of urine vanilmandelic acid. This patient was thus diagnosed as bilateral neuroblastomas. Because bone scintigraphy frequently shows abnormal uptake in primary neuroblastomas, it has potentially diagnostic value for early detection of bilateral adrenal neuroblastomas.