The clinical usefulness of NP-59 scintigraphy in adrenal cortical diseases

131I-6-β-iodomethyl-19-norcholesterol (NP-59) has an advantage to assess adrenal dysfunction caused by adrenal cortical disorders. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical usefulness of NP-59 scintigraphy in each adrenal disease. Ten patients who did eleven NP-59 adrenal scintigraphies at Dong-A University Hospital from March 1990 to December 1996 were selected as the subject. Among the subject there were 5 cases of Cushing's syndrome, 2 cases of incidentaloma, 1 case of metastatic adrenal tumor, liver cirrhosis with hirsutism and hypertension respectively. Among 5 cases of Cushing's syndrome, there were 2 cases of Cushing's disease, 2 cases of adrenal adenoma and 1 case of adrenal carcinoma. There are no disagreement between clinical diagnosis and scan finding in Cushing's syndrome. In 2 incidentaloma cases, even though one is interpretated as a functioning tumor, both of 2 cases could avoid unnecessary biopsy according to scintigraphy result. One case of hirsutism, clinically adrenal originated, revealed the normal scintigraphic finding after dexamethasone suppression scan. It could suggest that the etiology of hirsutism was extra-adrenal origin. One case of hypertension took the study to exclude the possibility of primary aldosteronism. Normal suppression scan finding revealed that primary aldosteronism did not exist in this case. In conclusion, NP-59 scintigraphy was very useful in diagnosis and differential diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome and it could avoid unnecessary biopsy in the incidental adrenal tumor