Unilateral left pulmonary Tl-201 uptake on raw data images of dual-isotope gated SPECT due to pulmonary infiltrates and atelectasis

Decreased myocardial perfusion SPECT lung-to-heart ratio: Lucent lungs

“…Increased 201-thallium, Tc-99m sestamibi, and Tc-99m sestamibi uptake in the lungs has been described extensively in the literature ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ). Focally increased tracer uptake in the lungs has been associated with malignant tumors, benign lesions, infiltrate, atelectasis, and granulomatous disease ( 1 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ).…”

“…Increased 201-thallium, Tc-99m sestamibi, and Tc-99m sestamibi uptake in the lungs has been described extensively in the literature ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ). Focally increased tracer uptake in the lungs has been associated with malignant tumors, benign lesions, infiltrate, atelectasis, and granulomatous disease ( 1 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ). Diffusely increased tracer uptake in the lungs has been correlated with extent of coronary disease, left ventricular dysfunction, and also poor prognosis ( 1 , 5 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ).…”

“…Although myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging is used primarily to evaluate myocardial blood flow and function, careful inspection of the "rotating" planar images and tomographic images may yield important extracardiac findings ( 1 , 2 ). Dedicated cardiac cameras have a relatively narrow field of view, but general nuclear medicine cameras (with their larger field of view) allow visualization of additional structures above and below the diaphragm.…”

“…Focally increased tracer uptake in the lungs has been associated with malignant tumors, benign lesions, infiltrate, atelectasis, and granulomatous disease ( 1 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ). Diffusely increased tracer uptake in the lungs has been correlated with extent of coronary disease, left ventricular dysfunction, and also poor prognosis ( 1 , 5 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ). However, to our knowledge, decreased tracer uptake in the lungs ("lucent lungs") has not been described in the literature.…”