A new method giving a two criteria diagnosis of venous occlusion using isotope imaging of sup(99m)Tc-labelled fibrinogen

A new method for the diagnosis of venous occlusion involves three stages: first, injection of sup(99m)Tc-labelled fibrinogen into a distal vein in the suspected limb with an dynamic gamma scan of venous flow; second, a static pool scan of both limbs to show the anatomy of the veins seen in the dynamic scan and third, a later static scan showing sup(99m)Tc-fibrinogen associated with thrombus. In occlusion, absence of flow in the dynamic scan corresponds to the presence of isotope in thrombus in the second static scan. The test uses a low-volume, low-radioactivity injection and may be repeated many times. (orig.)