Gallium scan

Gallium 67.0 scan
Medical diagnostics
ICD-10-PCS	C?1?LZZ (planar) C?2?LZZ (tomographic)
ICD-9-CM	92.18
OPS-301 code	3-70c
MedlinePlus	003450
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C?1?LZZ (planar)

A gallium scan or gallium 67 scan (also called "gallium imaging") is a type of nuclear medicine study that uses a gallium-67 (⁶⁷Ga)radioactive tracer to obtain images of a specific type of tissue, or disease state of tissue. Gallium salts like gallium citrate and gallium nitrate are used. The form of salt is not important, since it is the freely dissolved gallium ion Ga³⁺ which is active.

Gallium is taken up by tumors, inflammation, and both acute and chronic infection, allowing these pathological processes to be imaged by a gamma camera, SPECT camera, or SPECT/CT. Gallium is particularly useful in imaging osteomyelitis that involves the spine, and in imaging older and chronic infections that may be the cause of a fever of unknown origin.

The body generally handles Ga³⁺ as though it were ferric iron (Fe-III), and thus the free isotope ion is bound (and concentrates) in areas of inflammation, such as an infection site, and also areas of rapid cell division. Gallium (III) (Ga³⁺) binds to transferrin, leukocyte lactoferrin, bacterial siderophores, inflammatory proteins, and cell-membranes in neutrophils, both living and dead.

This relatively nonspecific gallium binding allows sites with tumor, inflammation, and both acute and chronic infection to be imaged by nuclear scan techniques.

In the past, the gallium scan was the gold standard for cancer diagnosis and staging, until it was replaced by positron emission tomography using fludeoxyglucose. Gallium imaging is still used to image inflammation and chronic infections, and it still sometimes locates unsuspected tumors as it is taken up by many kinds of cancer cells in amounts that exceed those of normal tissues. Thus, an increased uptake of gallium-67 may indicate a new or old infection, an inflammatory focus from any cause, or a cancerous tumor.

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Wikipedia