The Ability of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound, Conventional Ultrasound, and 99mTc-MIBI Scintigraphy for the Detection of Parathyroid Lesion in Patients with Primary Hyperparathyroidism

Abstract

The aim of this review was to compare the efficiency of conventional ultrasound (CUS), contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), and 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy in imaging parathyroid gland lesions in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). In this review, we attempted to present a clear view of the most reliable or precise technique for detecting parathyroid gland (PG) pathology in PHPT. Our study relied on secondary data based on the review of the extant literature on PHPT imaging. The research retrieved articles from the scholarly databases Google Scholar, Web of Science, and PUBMED/MEDLINE that examine the efficiency of CUS, CEUS, and 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy in imaging PGs in PHPT patients. The study retrieved secondary data from past research identified using keyword and medical subject heading terms like "Ultrasound," "Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound," "Sonography in parathyroid," "Primary hyperthyroidism," "Scintigraphy," and "Contrast-enhanced ultrasound in parathyroid disease." This study only relied on original contribution papers presented in English and published between 2011 and 2021. We found that CEUS has a comparable sensitivity to 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy so that it can be used in patients who have a contraindication to scintigraphy or in a hospital without nuclear medicine facility. CEUS is able to detect very small size adenomas, whereas the detection using scintigraphy depends on the size of the diseased glands and the cytology.