Unilateral absence of lung perfusion on pulmonary scintigraphy secondary to lung cancer with extensive pleural metastases from lung cancer.

A man with a 20-year history of smoking who underwent Tc-99m MAA Pulmonary perfusion imaging, which showed virtually absent perfusion of the right lung and fairly normal perfusion of the left lung. Eighteen days after the study, the patient died; at autopsy poorly differentiated carcinoma of the right lung was confirmed, which included extensive thickened pleura and plaques deposits and compression of the right lung; 200 ml of bloody pleural effusion was also found on the right side. The unilateral absence of lung perfusion on Tc-99m MAA pulmonary scintigraphy might reflect the autopsy findings of the right lung and pleura.