Should every patient diagnosed with a phaeochromocytoma have a ¹²³ I-MIBG scintigraphy?

Abstract

Localization of phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGLs) should involve functional imaging as anatomical imaging modalities can either fail to locate the tumour or can be suboptimal due to an anatomical abnormality or previous surgery. Functional imaging is particularly useful to fully delineate the extent of disease using the whole-body scan and the evaluation of multifocality, metastatic or recurrent disease. An increasing number of radiolabeled tracers have become available for tumour visualization during the past decade. (123) I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy is the most widely used functional imaging modality, and its sensitivity to identify chromaffin cell tumours varies from 85 to 88% for phaeochromocytomas and 56-76% for paragangliomas, while specificity ranges between 70 and 100% and 84-100%, respectively.