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We reviewed the findings of adrenocortical scintigraphy with 131I-6-beta-iodomethyl-19-norcholesterol (NCL-6-131I) of 39 patients to clarify its role in the evaluation of unilateral adrenal or juxtaadrenal masses incidentally discovered by CT, ultrasonography or plain radiography. Twenty-seven benign adrenal masses showed various scintigraphic findings (hot nodule: 12 silent adenomas, warm nodule: one solid mass, normal appearance: one cyst and 2 solid masses, diffuse decrease: each one; solid mass, myelolipoma, ganglioneuroma and calcified adrenal and partial or complete defect: each one; solid mass, myelolipoma and ganglioneuroma and 2 cysts and 2 pheochromocytomas); while a partial or complete defect was shown in a nonfunctioning carcinoma and 3 metastases and a complete defect or inhomogeneous uptake without opposite adrenal visualization was shown in 2 patients with cortisol-producing carcinoma. Therefore a hot nodule and an inhomogeneous uptake or complete defect with nonvisualization of the opposite adrenal are specific to a benign tumor and a cortisol-producing carcinoma, respectively. The impaired tumor uptake of NCL-6-131I is a nonspecific finding. The scintigraphic findings of juxtaadrenal masses were normal in 4 and deviated adrenals in 2. Thus adrenocortical scintigraphy can identify silent adenomas and cortisol-producing carcinomas among the adrenal masses and may help to differentiate juxtaadrenal from adrenal masses.

Variations in heart intensity in the 30 min and 4 hr chest images of the radiolabelled lipophilic amine, N-isopropyl-p-[123I]iodoamphetamine (123I-IMP) were observed in 130 patients with lung diseases, aged 23 to 85 yrs. The heart intensity had a significant positive linear correlation with age (r = 0.43 at 30 min, 0.66 at 4 hr). The ratio of 4 hr heart intensity to 30 min heart intensity also had a positive linear correlation (r = 0.59), suggesting slower clearance of the radioactivity from the heart in older than in younger patients during this interval. Other parameters including sex, EKG findings, liver function, blood pressure, the presence of diabetes mellitus and smoking history had no relationship to heart intensity. A significant difference between heart intensities in bronchogenic carcinoma and pneumonia patient groups might be probably due to the age difference between the two groups. Therefore heart intensity in the 4 hr 123I-IMP image may reflect certain metabolic and/or myocardial change(s) with aging.