Predicting splenic abnormality in Hodgkin disease using volume response to epinephrine administration.

The change in relative splenic volume following epinephrine administration was used to determine splenic abnormality noninvasively. Selective splenic imaging was accomplished with 99mTc-labeled heat-treated red blood cells, an LFOV gamma camera, a 30 degrees bilateral rotating slant hole collimator, and bilateral slant hole tomographic software. Relative splenic volumes were plotted over time, and correlated with clinical and histologic data. Eight patients with Hodgkin disease and other lymphomas were examined. Volume response to epinephrine appears to be significantly less in abnormal spleens, and may serve to identify patients with unequivocally normal spleens prior to treatment.