99mTc-ENS ventilation scintigraphy:: Preliminary study in human volunteers

Exogenous natural surfactant (ENS) labeled with Tc-99m (Tc-99m-ENS, 900-1110 MBq), a new radiopharmaceutical for ventilation scintigraphy, was nebulized during 3 min to five volunteers. For comparative purposes, Tc-99m-dierhylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) was studied in the same way. Tc-99m-ENS images were of at least the same quality as Tc-99m-DTPA images. However, in smoking volunteers, the Tc-99m-DTPA images show some areas that seemed to be not well-ventilated, although these areas appeared well-ventilated when the study was performed with Tc-99m-ENS. These results suggest that Tc-99m-ENS can be used for ventilation scintigraphy to allow the observation of some areas that cannot been visualized using Tc-99m-DTPA as ventilation agent. NUCL MED BIOL 27;2:215-218, 2000. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.