Pulmonary carcinoids cause serious difficulties in imaging diagnostics in all stages of the disease. SRS holds great promise for detecting occult primary tu and metastatic lesions. (99m)Tc-EDDA/HYNIC-octreotate, a new scintigraphic agent, should significantly improve sensitivity of the diagnostics of carcinoids due to better affinity to SSR2 than (111)In-Octreoscan and the higher count rate obtained from (99m)Tc over (111)In. We present a case of a 40-year-old women operated on because of lung carcinoid tumour in 2002. The symptoms did not resolve after the operation and 5-OHIAA was still elevated. The thorax spiral CT revealed the focal lesion beneath carina. (111)In-Octreoscan and (99m)Tc-EDDA/HYNIC-octreotate SRS revealed two focal lesions in the mediastinum. (99m)Tc-EDDA/HYNIC-octreotate detected two additional lesions in the lower part of the right lung. Target/non-target count ratios of the lesions were as follows: (99m)Tc-EDDA/HYNIC-octreotate scans - 2,9, (111)In-Octreoscan- 2,1. PET-FDG examination revealed no pathology. Owing to severe bone pains and carcinoid symptoms the patient was referred for the 90Y-DOTA-octreotate treatment.
Conclusions: SRS with a new 99mTc marked somatostatin analogue - octreotate allows for a more sensitive detection of metastatic leasions in carcinoid tumours. The usefulness of 18F-FDG PET, widely used as a powerful imaging technique in clinical oncology, is limited in detection of carcinoid tumours due to the low proliferative activity.