Scintigraphic evaluation of tumors metastatic to the choroid using technetium-99m(V)-dimercaptosuccinic acid.

Technetium-99m(V)-dimercaptosuccinic acid scintigraphy was used to evaluate three patients with intraocular tumors who had metastatic breast, lung, and rectal carcinomas, respectively. At the time of initial examination, two patients had no known systemic cancer, but the scintigraphy results in one patient revealed the primary site and were highly suggestive of disseminated carcinomatosis in the other patient. In the third patient, scintigraphy was successful to confirm very small bilateral intraocular tumors and also other systemic lesions. Technetium-99m(V)-dimercaptosuccinic acid scintigraphy can be reliably employed in a very select group of patients with intraocular tumors where metastatic carcinoma is a serious diagnostic possibility against a primary intraocular malignancy. This safe and promising tumor-imaging agent has the ability to demonstrate the ocular lesions and other systemic foci simultaneously, information that would prove to be crucial in both the diagnosis and the management of the patient.