Atypical Appearance on Thyroid Scintigraphy

Abstract

We report the case of a 49-year-old woman with achalasia in whom thyroid stimulating hormone supression was incidentally detected on routine blood tests and who therefore underwent thyroid scintigraphy. Thyroid scan demonstrated low intensity diffuse technetium Tc sodium pertechnetate accumulation inferior to thyroid gland. After correlating the images with her previous barium esophagogram, tracer accumulation caudal to thyroid gland was explained on the presumption of Tc sodium pertechnetate retention within the dilated esophagus.

Unusual Achalasia Presentation Detected on 131I SPECT/CT in a Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Patient

“…Although the incidental appearance of achalasia has been reported before using radioiodine imaging, 3,4 whole-body 131 I scan was carried out alone. Achalasia has also been found in 99m Tc-pertechnetate imaging and 68 Ga-PSMA PET/CT 5–7 . 131 I scan plays a crucial role in the management of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer for the evaluation of remnant thyroid tissue, residual/recurrent metastatic disease, posttherapy tracer distribution, and response assessment to high-dose 131 I therapy 8 .…”