Large abdominal photopenic area on 99mTc-sestamibi myocardial perfusion imaging

Abstract

99mTc-sestamibi myocardial perfusion imaging is frequently performed in conjunction with exercise or pharmacologic stress testing for evaluation of coronary heart disease. Interpretation of these studies includes systematic review of unprocessed rotating projectional images for evaluation of cardiac size as well as the presence of motion or attenuation artifacts. Occasionally, incidental noncardiac findings are detected on review of the projectional images. We report a case of a patient with a history of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease who was found to have a large abdominal photopenic area on the projectional images. The photopenic area corresponded to the location of large intraabdominal cysts on abdominal CT and was consistent with hepatic cysts associated with the patient's known polycystic kidney disease. We review the differential diagnosis of large abdominal photopenic regions identified on myocardial projectional images and the importance of routinely analyzing these images for incidental noncardiac findings. © 2012 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Inc.