Can Ga-68 DOTA Peptides be Potential Radiotracers for PET Imaging of Spleen?

On radionuclide somatostatin receptor (SSTR) imaging studies spleen shows very high uptake which is a physiological finding. Reducing intensity of the image settings helps to better assess the distribution of radiotracer in the spleen. In our routine studies we incidentally recognized that Gallium-68 (Ga-68) DOTANOC positron emission tomography (PET) provides higher resolution splenic images as compared to In-111 Octreotide single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Autoradiography and immunohistochemistry studies have shown that SSTRs are mainly located in the red pulp of the spleen. Distribution of Ga-68 DOTANOC in the spleen appears to be correlating with the distribution of red pulp. In this article we will present Ga-68 DOTANOC PET/CT spleen images of our patients.