Office-based salivary gland ductal irrigation in patients with chronic sialoadenitis: A preliminary study.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: To evaluate the therapeutic responsiveness of office-based salivary gland ductal irrigation in patients with chronic sialoadenitis. METHODS: Between August 2017 and April 2019, 55 patients comprising the following three disease groups were enrolled: Sjogren's syndrome: 39 patients; postradiotherapy sialoadenitis: ten patients; and post-RAI sialoadenitis: six patients. Quantitative salivary scintigraphy was recorded, and a formulated questionnaire including the Summated Xerostomia Inventory was utilized to assess acute/chronic symptoms. All patients received at least three serial salivary gland ductal irrigations with a one-month interval in our outpatient department. RESULTS: The general response rates for each disease groups are as follows: Sjogren's syndrome: 61.5% (24/39); postradiotherapy: 60% (6/10); and post-RAI: 83.3% (5/6). Among the patients with Sjogren's syndrome, the parotid scintigraphic Tmin showed a significant positive correlation with the responsiveness of salivary irrigation (P = 0.046), whereas the treatment tended to be irresponsive in patients who previously took medicine for their related discomfort (P = 0.009). In the postradiotherapy and post-RAI groups, no significant factors were found to be associated with the responsiveness of irrigation. CONCLUSION: Simple salivary ductal irrigation without complex equipment can be performed as an outpatient procedure to alleviate glandular swelling or xerostomia in patients with Sjogren's syndrome, postradiotherapy sialoadenitis or post-RAI sialoadenitis, and it can be considered an alternative management approach for patients refractory to conventional strategies.

The establishment and application of sialoscintigraphic reference values from patients with obstructive sialadenitis.

AIM: To evaluate feasibility of establishing a clinically applicable reference value through those unaffected salivary gland on sialoscintigraphic data obtained from patients presented with obstructive sialadenitis affected a single gland. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninety-one patients suffered from single salivary gland swelling, pain/tenderness and received sialoscintigraphic examinations were retrospectively enrolled. The quantitative data parameters, including the uptake ratio, maximal accumulation, maximal excretion, time to maximal (Tmax) and time to minimal (Tmin) activity of the affected and unaffected glands, were calculated for analysis. Data were also obtained and recorded for comparison from 50 patients who fulfill the American-European criteria for the diagnosis of Sjogren's syndrome. RESULTS: The maximal excretion appeared to be the best indicator for distinguishing affected and unaffected glands of obstructive diseases, for parotid and submandibular glands (P = 0.0002 and P < 0.0001, respectively). The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) is 0.82 for submandibular glands. In patients with Sjogren's syndrome, the maximal excretion and Tmin were the best parameters, for parotid (P = 0.002 and P < 0.0001, respectively) and submandibular glands (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.002, respectively). Uptake ratio was a good parameter for submandibular gland (P < 0.0001). The AUC of maximal excretion and uptake ratio for submandibular glands is 0.81 and 0.77, respectively. CONCLUSION: Quantitative data obtained from the unaffected glands of patients with obstructive sialadenitis could be used as reference values for the functional evaluation of salivary gland disorders with maximal excretion as one of the reliable parameters.

Gallium-67 SPECT/CT for abdominal abscess.

An 80-year-old woman, who had suffered from end-stage renal disease under peritoneal dialysis, was presented with intermittent fever, leukocytosis, and elevated C-reactive protein for 4 months. She did not have symptom of abdominal pain. Culture of ascites showed Klebsiella pneumoniae. Abdominal utrasonography was negative. Whole-body gallium-67 imaging showed a segmental uptake mimicking bowels in right abdomen. SPECT/CT revealed the uptake in a soft tissue density beneath the abdominal wall instead of bowels. Contrast-enhanced CT demonstrated a low-density mass with peripheral enhancement at the aforementioned area. Her clinical condition stabilized gradually after CT-guided percutaneous drainage of pus from the abscess.