Journal of Diagnostics Concepts & Practice >

2025 , Vol. 24 >Issue 05: 512 - 517

DOI: https://doi.org/10.16150/j.1671-2870.2025.05.006

Original articles

Correlation between diffuse hepatic ¹³¹I uptake and functional status of ¹³¹I uptake in lung metastases during post-operative ablation therapy for papillary thyroid carcinom

  • WANG Yang ,
  • WANG Chao ,
  • FU Fan ,
  • ZHANG Min ,
  • LI Biao ,
  • WANG Jin
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  • 1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Baoji Central Hospital, Shaanxi Baoji 721008, China
    2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China

Received date: 2025-05-13

  Revised date: 2025-08-04

  Accepted date: 2025-09-05

  Online published: 2025-10-25

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Abstract

Objective To investigate the auxiliary value of diffuse hepatic ¹³¹I uptake (DHU) levels on post-therapy whole-body scan (Rx-WBS) images in assessing metastatic tumor burden in patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) accompanied by lung metastases who underwent total thyroidectomy followed by radioiodine remnant ablation (RRA) and subsequently received ¹³¹I therapy for non-resectable distant or regional metastases. Methods A total of 22 PTC patients with lung metastases scheduled for ¹³¹I metastatic ablation therapy were retrospectively enrolled from the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, between June 2020 and February 2025. The patients met the following three criteria: (1) total thyroidectomy; (2) completion of ¹³¹I RRA; (3) multiple pulmonary nodules detected on 131I RRA-period whole-body scan or chest CT, with stimulated thyroglobulin (sTg) >10 ng/mL. Bivariate correlation and multiple linear regression models were used to analyze the correlations of target-to-background ratios (TBR) of liver (TBRliver) and lung metastases (TBRlung) for ¹³¹I uptake with clinical parameters including sTg, thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb), and administered ¹³¹I dose. Results TBRliver showed a significant positive correlation with TBRlung (r=0.510, P<0.05). No significant correlations were found between TBRliver and sTg (r=0.218, P=0.331) or administered dose (r=0.334, P=0.128). Multiple linear regression analysis identified TBRlung as an independent influencing factor of TBRliver (β=0.511, 95% CI: 0.053-0.453, P<0.05). Conclusion In PTC patients with lung metastases after thyroidectomy and RRA, TBRliver demonstrates a significant correlation with the functional status of ¹³¹I uptake in lung metastases. Particularly when ¹³¹I scanning shows negative pulmonary nodules, elevated TBRliver may serve as an indicator of the presence of lung metastases.

Key words： Papillary thyroid cancer; Diffuse hepatic uptake; Lung metastasis; Post-therapy whole-body scan

Cite this article

WANG Yang , WANG Chao , FU Fan , ZHANG Min , LI Biao , WANG Jin . Correlation between diffuse hepatic ¹³¹I uptake and functional status of ¹³¹I uptake in lung metastases during post-operative ablation therapy for papillary thyroid carcinom[J]. Journal of Diagnostics Concepts & Practice, 2025 , 24(05) : 512 -517 . DOI: 10.16150/j.1671-2870.2025.05.006

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