European journal of nuclear medicine
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Comparative Study
Detection of acute inhalation injury in fire victims by means of technetium-99m DTPA radioaerosol inhalation lung scintigraphy.
Mortality and morbidity in fire victims are largely a function of injury due to heat and smoke. While the degree and area of burn together constitute a reliable numerical measure of cutaneous injury due to heat, as yet no satisfactory measure of inhalation injury has been developed. In this study, we employed technetium-99m diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid (DTPA) radioaerosol lung scintigraphy (inhalation scan) to evaluate acute inhalation injury in fire victims. ⋯ Using a cut-off value of 0.9%/min (all normal subjects were below 0. 9%/min), 14 (82.4%) patients had abnormal clearance rates of 99mTc-DTPA from the lung. In contrast, only three (17.6%) patients had abnormal CxR and three (17.6%) had abnormal PFTs. We conclude that (1) conventional CxR and PFT are not good modalities for evaluating inhalation injury in fire victims because of their low sensitivity, and (2) 99mTc-DTPA radioaerosol inhalation scintigraphy can provide an objective evaluation of inhalation injury during a fire accident and may be useful in therapeutic decision-making and disease monitoring.