Diffuse splenic Tc-99m MDP uptake in hypersplenic patient.

A 52-year-old woman with nonspecific left leg pain was examined by Tc-99m methylene diphosphonate (MDP) bone scintigraphy. The patient had been a marble quarry worker for 10 years and had developed chronic congestive heart failure secondary to pneumoconiosis. Her hemoglobin analysis and hematologic findings were interpreted as being consistent with sickle cell beta+ thalassemia and also hypersplenism. Bone scintigraphy showed intense and diffuse MDP accumulation in the enlarged spleen without ultrasonographic or radiologic evidence of calcification.