Abstract
111In-chloride as a useful bone marrow-scanning agent has been used for various hematological diseases. We also have studied the distribution of indium-111 by scintigraphy in 28 patients with systemic hematopoietic disorders and other : 4 with aplastic anemia, 8 with leucemia, 3 with iron-deficiency anemia, one with pernicious anemia, 2 with myelofibrosis, 3 with multiple myeloma, one with malignant lymphoma, 3 with liver cirrhosis or Banti-syndrome and 3 with seminoma received post operative irradiation.
The results of scintigraphy (the image of bone marrow, liver, spleen, kidney and intestine) were compared with bone marrow biopsies, ferrokinetic data and Se.I./TIBC. The bone marrow image was interpreted on a three-point scale: normal distribution of activity (+), abnormal distribution (±), body back ground level (-) .
In the cases of iron-deficiency anemia and pernicious anemia with hyperplastic erythroid marrow, regardless of its severe anemia, the scintigrams showed clearly delineated bone marrow images and normal organ distribution of indium. On the other hand, the scan images revealed severe suppressions of bone marrow activity and markedly increased renal activity in some cases of aplastic anemia, acute leucemia and malignant lymphoma with hypoplastic and/or tumour-cell in filtrative marrows.
Thus, it may be said that the bone marrow uptake of indium-111 correlates well with the degree of erythroid elements, no correlation with nucleated cell counts, and there is a strong tendency to increased renal activity in the cases o f markedly decreased erythropoietic cell counts.
The metabolism of injected ionic indium, however, are not identical with that of iron in several respects (plasma disappearance time T1/2, red cell utilization rate, etc.), and it is difficult to evaluate quantitatively the degree of erythropoietic function with 111In-chloride. Therefore, the bone marrow scintigraphy with 111In-chloride is a useful means, but it should be used qualitatively to detect the anatomical distribution of active bone marrow in terms of assessing erythroid elements.
