Clinical Usefulness of Technetium-99m HM-PAO Labeled White Blood Cell Imaging in Abscesses

The widespread use of indium-111 labeled white blood cells is limited by several factors, including the relatively high radiation dose required, the unfavorable cost-benefit ratio, and the time-consuming cell separation procedure. The major drawback, however, is that this tracer is not routinely available in most laboratories. In the case of a patient suffering from a fever of unknown origin, the clinician wants an accurate diagnosis of the problem as soon as possible, preferably within 24 hours. In practice, the indium tracer can rarely be delivered within this time interval. However, labeling of WBCs with Tc-99m-d, 1-HM-PAO is possible within 24 hours. This advantage is illustrated in this article by two case reports.