The clinical value of quantitative dynamic scintigraphy in salivary gland disorders

Salivary gland scintigraphy with [ 99mTc]pertechnetate was performed in a group of 11 subjects without any known salivary pathology, and in a group of 12 xerostomic patients. Time-activity curves, normalized to background, were generated for each of the four major salivary glands in both groups, and averaged into single curves, representing the function of each gland. Comparing the two sets of curves (patients vs controls) demonstrates that utilizing our “normalization” approach enables one not only to determine whether one group of dynamic curves is significantly different from another, but to decide which of the glands are normal and which are malfunctioning. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and predictive values of this procedure are all above 0.90.