Radionuclide imaging of the spleen with heat denatured technetium-99m RBC when the splenic reticuloendothelial system seems impaired.

Imaging of the spleen of 10 patients who had been hematologically diagnosed with sickle-cell anemia (SCA) was studied with [99mTc]tin colloid and heat denatured [99mTc]RBCs. In all ten patients, there was faint or nonvisualization of the spleen with [99mTc]tin colloid. However, with heat denatured [99mTc]RBCs, nine spleens were well visualized, and the uptake was homogenous. One spleen had two patchy areas of uptake. The results indicate that when splenic phagocytic function is impaired as reflected by nonvisualization of the spleen with [99mTc]tin colloid, it is still possible to image such a spleen with heat denatured [99mTc]RBCs.