Target imaging diagnosis of human brain glioma: Clinical analysis of 40 cases

Objective. To establish a method for localization and qualitative diagnosis of glioma. Methods. The monoclonal antibody SZ-39 against human glioma was labelled with ¹³¹I and injected intravenously into 40 patients with intracranial occupying lesions proved by X-CT. 72 hours after ¹³¹I-McAb-SZ39 administration, cranial bone nuclide-imaging agent ^99mTc-MDP was injected intravenously, and the patients were examined by SPECT scan with dual nuclide double channel tomography and special software. On radio-immuno-image, the immunocomplex formed by specific conjugation of ¹³¹I-McAb-SZ39 with target tissue was red, while the cranial bone incorporated with ^99mTc-MDP was green. The location of the immunocomplex area could be identified by the superimposition of the images. Results. 21 patients with positive targeting diagnosis of glioma showed the accuracy rate checked by SPECT was 81%(17/21) and by X-CT 48% (10/21). Seven patients with negative targeting diagnosis showed the accuracy rate checked by SPECT was 86%(6/7) and by X-CT 14%(1/7). Pathologically, the sensitivity of targeting SPECT to glioma was 94.5%(17/18) and that of X-CT 55%(10/18). Conclusions. Targeting SPECT examination could be used for localization and qualitative diagnosis of glioma and make up the inadequacy of X-CT in the qualitative diagnosis of atypical incipient and recurrent glioma, meningioma, metastatic carcinoma, and inflammatory lesions of brain.