Hair
Artifact on the Left Side of Head Mimicking Metastasis of Thyroid Carcinoma in
a Woman after I-131 Therapy
Jiehua
Xu, Peiqiang Cai, Ting Jiang, Zhuge Lin, Jie Qin
Jiehua Xu, Zhuge
Lin, Department
of nuclear medicine, The third affiliated hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, 600
Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China
Peiqiang Cai, Department of Radiology, Cancer Center,
Sun Yat-sen University, 651 Dongfengdong Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong province,
China
Ting Jiang, Jie
Qin, Department of Radiology, The third
affiliated hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou,
Guangdong province, China
Correspondence to: Jie Qin, Department of Radiology, The third
affiliated hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou,
Guangdong province, China.
Email: jason020@163.com
Telephone: +86-20-85253108
Received: April 30,
2015
Revised: May 26, 2015
Accepted: May 31, 2015
Published online: June 29, 2015
ABSTRACT
Accurate
interpretation of radioiodine whole body scan is extremely crucial to avoid
unwarranted radioiodine ablative therapy in patients with differentiated
thyroid carcinoma. We reported a rare case of special hair artifact in a
32-year-old woman on post-therapeutic scans which showed a crescent intense
activity on the left lateral head, like neo-appeared metastasis. Additional
projections after the hair was moved aside demonstrated that the activity was
caused by hair contamination, likely from sialorrhea during sleep. The report
enriches artifacts on radioiodine scans.
© 2015 ACT. All
rights reserved.
Key words: Thyroid carcinoma; Radioiodine; Whole body scan; Hair
artifact; Metastasis
Xu JH, Cai PQ,
Jiang T, Lin ZG, Qin J. Hair Artifact on the Left Side of Head Mimicking Metastasis of Thyroid
Carcinoma in a Woman after I-131 Therapy. International
Journal of Radiology 2015; 2(1): 42-44 Available from: URL:
http://www.ghrnet.org/index.php/ijr/article/view/1130
Introduction
Radioiodine (I-131) whole body scan (WBS) plays an important role in
the management of differentiated papillary and follicular thyroid carcinoma.
The presence of I-131 uptake outside the areas of physiologic elimination is
suggestive of functional metastasis and always triggers I-131 treatment, as it
is a consensus that patients with I-131 concentrated metastasis should receive
a certain dose of I-131 therapy. It is important to properly distinguish
false-positive site of I-131 uptake to avoid unnecessary I-131 intervention
therapy.
WBS after
I-131 therapy for differentiated thyroid carcinoma is requested routinely as it
has been reported that post therapeutic WBS can detect additional metastasis
invisible on diagnostic scan[1]. In our department, post therapeutic
WBS is performed 5-7 days after administration of therapeutic dose of I-131 and
diagnostic WBS is performed 24 or 48 hours after administration of 74-185 MBq
(2-5mCi) I-131. Patients are placed in a supine position between
large-field-of-view dual-head gamma-cameras equipped with high-energy parallel
hole collimators (GE Corporation, Millennium TMVG8, Hawkeye ). Additional
projections or regional SPECT plus integrated low-dose CT is performed if
necessary to provide more diagnostic information. Here we reported a special
case of hair contamination on post-therapeutic WBS.
Case
report
A 32-year-old woman with papillary thyroid carcinoma in the right lobe,
who was treated with surgery and postoperative I-131 of 3700 MBq (100mCi),
returned 5 months later for WBS as her serum level of thyroglobulin increased
from 1.0 to 2.58pmol/L in the recent two months. She had had a history of left
thyroid lobectomy for follicular thyroid carcinoma 5 years previously. Except
the normal physiological I-131 accumulations in gastro-intestine and bladder,
the diagnostic WBS revealed focal thyroid bed activity (Figure 1, arrow) for
which she received a second 3700 MBq (100mCi) I-131 ablative therapy. Post
therapeutic WBS was performed routinely, which showed an additional crescent
intense activity on left lateral head (Figure 2, arrow). At first glance, we
considered it as new metastasis. However, on inquiry and physical examination,
we doubted initial consideration of metastasis as the patient had no pain and
palpable mass. So, head SPECT plus integrated low-dose CT was performed,
demonstrating that the uptake was outside the head contour (Figure 3, arrow).
Hair contamination was speculated, likely from sialorrhea during sleep. Additional
anterior and posterior projections after moving the hair aside (Figure 4) were
performed to differentiate real metastasis from contamination. Shape of the
activity changed (Figure 4, arrow), demonstrating hair contamination.
Discussion
Accurate interpretation of I-131 WBS is extremely crucial as
unidentified false positive results might trigger unwarranted I-131 ablative
therapy in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma. It has been reported
and discussed in literatures[2-8] that non-physiological
extra-thyroidal I-131 accumulation on I-131 WBS does not always imply thyroid
cancer metastasis. We reported a rare case of special hair artifact with the
form of a patch of crescent intense activity on left side of head. To our
knowledge, it has not been reported in English literatures.
Post
therapeutic WBS is required routinely to detect additional functional
metastasis invisible on diagnostic WBS. In our case, compared to diagnostic
WBS, besides common diffuse hepatic uptake[9] (Figure 2, arrowhead),
a patch of crescentic intense activity in left lateral head (Figure 2 arrow)
neo-appeared on the scan. At first glance, as there was only one new-appeared
accumulation on the scan, we did not think of the probability of contamination at
first. We thought it as new discovered metastasis and deduced that the patient
needs further I-131 therapy in the future. However, after physical examination
and inquiry, we denied initial consideration of metastasis as the patient had
no pain and palpable mass. As our SPECT has an integrated low dose CT, we
performed a regional SPECT plus integrated low dose CT to help diagnosis. It
turned out that the accumulation was outside the head contour, so we realized
the probability of hair contamination. We then performed additional projections
after changing her hair’s position. The shape of the activity changed (Figure 4
arrow), corroborating our speculation of hair contamination.
One of the commonest reasons of false positive uptake was contamination
from I-131 body secretions after administration, mainly urine and saliva.
Judging from the position and number of the artifact, we deduced that the hair
contamination was from saliva instead of urine. Saliva contamination has been
reported in hair[10], neck and thoracic region[11,12],
right buccal area because of chewing gun[11], base of the neck from
contaminated necklace[13], and so on. Unlike those described
previously[10,11,14-16], hair contamination in our case showed an
intense activity on the unilateral head. As no other contamination was found in
other parts of the body, we extrapolated it originating from nocturnal
drooling, which has been reported to result in contamination in neck[11]
and shoulder[17]. As the woman had short hair and preferentially slept
with head turning left, drooling during sleep induced left-side hair
contamination, resulting in an intense activity in left lateral head on the
scan, which has been rarely reported.
Traditionally,
to distinguish contamination from real metastasis, an easy way is to make the
patient have a good shower and repeat the scan. However, regional SPECT is
performed routinely nowadays if abnormal accumulation is found as most SPECT is
equipped with integrated CT with the development of SPECT equipment, which
facilitates the diagnosis, though it is time-consuming and at the same time
leads to patient’s additional radiation. From our report, we can see that such
an abnormality can also be distinguished simply by additional projections after
pulling the hair away, which is more timesaving. However, as we did not think
of the probability of contamination at first since we never saw such a kind of
artifact before, an unnecessary regional SPECT was performed, leading to a
waste of time and the patient’s improper radiation. The report reminds the
clinicians of the probability of hair contamination in such a condition, which
will benefit future practical application.
It also raises
the possibility of multi-organs contamination once the patient combs the hair
with hands and touches other parts of the body. However, it would be difficult
to identify the source of pollution in such a situation. The report enriches
artifacts on WBS and helps avoid unnecessary regional SPECT to distinguish hair
pollution from real metastasis. It also helps avoid inappropriate ablative
I-131 treatment if the situation happens on diagnostic WBS.
Acknowledgement
The work was supported by the National Natural Science Funds of China
(81101866), Sci-tech Development Program of Guangdong Province (2011B061300050)
and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (11ykpy41).
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
There are no
conflicts of interest with regard to the present study.
REFERENCES
1 Balachandran S, Sayle BA.
Value of thyroid carcinoma imaging after therapeutic doses of radioiodine. Clin
Nucl Med1981; 6: 162-167.
2 Ozcan Kara P, Gunay EC,
Erdogan A. Radioiodine Contamination Artifacts and Unusual Patterns of
Accumulation in Whole-body I-131 Imaging: A Case Series. Int J Endocrinol
Metab2014; 12: e9329.
3 Shapiro B, Rufini V, Jarwan
A, Geatti O, Kearfott KJ, Fig LM, Kirkwood ID, Gross MD. Artifacts, anatomical
and physiological variants, and unrelated diseases that might cause false-positive
whole-body 131-I scans in patients with thyroid cancer. Semin Nucl Med2000; 30:
115-132.
4 Nair N, Basu S, Pakhale H.
Unusual uptake of radioiodine in the chest in a patient with thyroid carcinoma.
Br J Radiol2004; 77: 63-67.
5 Carlisle MR, Lu C, McDougall
IR. The interpretation of 131I scans in the evaluation of thyroid cancer, with
an emphasis on false positive findings. Nucl Med Commun2003; 24: 715-735.
6 Bakheet SM, Powe J, Hammami
MM. Radioiodine uptake in the chest. J Nucl Med1997; 38: 984-986.
7 Brucker-Davis F, Reynolds JC,
Skarulis MC, Fraker DL, Alexander HR, Weintraub BD, Robbins J. False-positive
iodine-131 whole-body scans due to cholecystitis and sebaceous cyst. J Nucl
Med1996; 37: 1690-1693.
8 Gultekin SS, Dilli A, Arikok
AT, Bostanci H, Hasdemir AO. The false-positive radioiodine I-131 uptake in the
foreign body granuloma located in gluteal adipose tissue. Radiol Oncol2012; 46:
28-31.
9 Omur O, Akgun A, Ozcan Z, Sen
C, OzkiIic H. Clinical implications of diffuse hepatic uptake observed in
postablative and post-therapeutic I-131 scans. Clin Nucl Med2009; 34: 11-14.
10 Bhargava P, Choi WS. Artifactual
I-131 activity in the hairs after thyroid remnant ablation. Thyroid2006; 16:
1187-1189.
11 Ozguven M, Ilgan S, Arslan N,
Karacalioglu AO, Yuksel D, Dundar S. Unusual patterns of I-131 contamination.
Ann Nucl Med2004; 18: 271-274..
12 Roman MR, Larcos G, Devadas M. Lick
your lips: a case of salivary contamination after I-131 therapy for thyroid
carcinoma. Clin Nucl Med2002; 27: 462.
13 Beaulieu S, Djang D, Minoshima S.
False-positive "necklace sign" on whole-body thyroid cancer survey--a
case report. J Nucl Med Technol2005; 33: 42-43.
14 Meyers A, Harry L, Peterson B.
Iodine 131 uptake related to hair dyeing. Radiol Technol2007; 78: 433-434.
15 Schlosser J, Paliou M, Bravo-Vera
R, Sheikh A, Gouller A. False positive uptake in post-treatment iodine-131
whole-body scans secondary to contamination. Thyroid2007; 17: 81-82.
16 Zakavi SR, Kakhki VD.
Exercise-induced radio-iodine accumulation in scalp and hair during admission
of 131I therapy for thyroid cancer. Thyroid2006; 16: 1185-1186.
17 Park HM, Tarver RD, Schauwecker DS,
Burt R. Spurious thyroid cancer metastasis: saliva contamination artifact in
high dose iodine-131 metastases survey. J Nucl Med1986; 27: 634-636.
Peer reviewers: Bu-Lang
Gao, Professor, Department of Medical Research, Shijiazhuang First Hospital,
Hebei Medical University, 36 Fanxi Road, Shijiazhuang 050011, Hebei Province,
China; Aimin Yang, Professor, Department of Nuclear Medicine, 1st Affiliated
Hospital, Medical school of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi Province, China.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.