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False-Positive Whole-Body Iodine-131 Scan Due to Intrahepatic Duct Dilatation

Departments of Nuclear Medicine and Metabolism, Chang Gang Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

Correspondence: For correspondence or reprints contact: Dong-Ling You, MD, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 199, Tung-Hwa North Rd., Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

ABSTRACT

Focal retention of radioactivity in the liver on whole-body ¹³¹I scan was interpreted as a metastatic lesion in a patient with well-differentiated thyroid cancer. Intrahepatic duct dilatation, usually resulting from biliary tract obstruction by bile stone, is a common disorder and may cause bile stasis. A patient with papillary thyroid cancer and a previous history of biliary tract stones had focal retention of radioactivity in the liver on whole-body ¹³¹I scan. Abdominal CT, endoscopic retrograde cholagiopancreatography, radionuclide cholangiography and sequential ¹³¹I scans demonstrated that this focal retention of radioactivity was caused by intrahepatic duct dilatation. Focal retention of radioactivity is visualized on delayed images but not on early images. The radioactivity initially increases and then decreases on following days.

Key Words: thyroid cancer • iodine-131 • biliary tract stasis