The Role of Octreotate Scan in Discrimination of Solitary Pulmonary Nodule

Solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) is one of the most controversial clinical findings in patients. The aim of this study is to use (99m)Tc-ethylenediamine diacetic acid/hydrazine nicotinamide (HYNIC)-TATE scan technique to evaluate nodules. From 2008 to 2010, 21 patients with SPN underwent (99m)Tc-HYNIC-TATE scan after the initial assessment with high-resolution computed tomography and then accurate histopathologic diagnosis was established by trans-thoracic needle biopsy, Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery and thoracotomy. After demographic evaluations, specificity and sensitivity of this method was studied. A total of 21 patients were included in our study, of which 12 patients were male and 9 were female. Their mean age was 45 ± 14.3 years. About 43% of the patients were symptom-free and in patients with pulmonary complaints, the most prevalent symptom was cough. Final histopathology tests and clinical follow-up proved that 14 cases (67%) were benign and 7 (33%) were malignant. The diagnostic technique used in our study had no false negative and there were only 3 cases of false positive. Sensitivity and specificity of this method are 100% and 79%, respectively and the diagnostic accuracy is 86%. (99m)Tc-HYNIC-TATE scan can be helpful in evaluating patients with SPN and to reach a sensible decision on the method of treatment.