Star-Shaped Intense Uptake of ¹³¹I on Whole Body Scans Can Reflect Good Therapeutic Effects of Low-Dose Radioactive Iodine Treatment of 1.1 GBq
Sung-Hye KONG; Jung-Ah LIM; Young-Shin SONG; Shinje MOON; Ye-An KIM; Min-Joo KIM; Sun-Wook CHO; Jae-Hoon MOON; Ka-Hee YI; Do-Joon PARK; Bo-Youn CHO; Young-Joo PARK.
Endocrinology and Metabolism
; : 228-235, 2018.
Article
in English
| WPRIM | ID: wpr-715514
BACKGROUND:
After initial radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment in differentiated thyroid cancer patients, we sometimes observe a star-shaped region of intense uptake of 131I on whole body scans (WBSs), called a ‘star artifact.’ We evaluated the clinical implications of star artifacts on the success rate of remnant ablation and long-term prognosis.METHODS:
Total 636 patients who received 131I dose of 1.1 GBq for the initial RAI therapy and who did not show distant metastasis at the time of diagnosis were retrospectively evaluated. A negative second WBS was used for evaluating the ablation efficacy of the RAI therapy. Among them, 235 patients (36.9%) showed a star artifact on their first WBS.RESULTS:
In patients with first stimulated thyroglobulin (sTg) levels ≤2 ng/mL, patients with star artifacts had a higher rate of negative second WBS compared with those without star artifacts (77.8% vs. 63.9%, P=0.044), and showed significantly higher recurrence-free survival (P=0.043) during the median 8.0 years (range, 1.0 to 10.0) of follow-up. The 5- and 10-year recurrence rates (5YRR, 10YRR) were also significantly lower in patients with star artifacts compared with those without (0% vs. 4.9%, respectively, P=0.006 for 5YRR; 0% vs. 6.4%, respectively, P=0.005 for 10YRR). However, ablation success rate or recurrence-free survival was not different among patients whose first sTg levels >2 ng/mL regardless of star artifacts.CONCLUSION:
Therefore, star artifacts at initial RAI therapy imply a good ablation efficacy or a favorable long-term prognosis in patients with sTg levels ≤2 ng/mL.
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