Nuclear-medical local diagnosis of the enthyreotic (bland) goiter

The recommendations made by the Goiter Section of the German Society for Endocrinology and by the Task Force on Short-lived Radionuclides for Medical Applications in the USA on the in-vivo application with radionuclides on the goiter are almost completely identical. They can be summarized as follows: a) in-vivo-radionuclide examinations are to be carried out only if there is an indication to do so. b) The radionuclide with the lowest radiation exposure should be applied (e.g. 123I, 99sup(m)Tc). c) 131I is being applied in a few exceptional cases only, but not for the routine scintiscanning of the bland goiter. As camera scintiscanning has been technically improved during the last years, the gamma camera might increasingly prevail over the scanner for thyroid scintiscanning. Taking into consideration possible 'pitfalls' in thyroid scintiscanning helps to avoid false diagnoses. (orig./MG)