A false negative by planar scintigraphy liver hemangioma, diagnosed by technetium-99m-red blood cells and technetium-99m-sulfur colloid single photon emission tomography scan.

We present a 42-year-old patient who was examined in the Gastroenterology Department of Gaziantep University for chronic abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Ultrasonography showed a 4.7 cm solid hepatic mass on the right lateral side of the right lobe of the liver. The patient was then sent to the Nuclear Medicine Department of Gaziantep University for liver scan. After injecting autologous red blood cells labeled with 740 MBq of technetium-99m ((99m)Tc-RBC), early and delayed anterior planar images of the liver showed no significant findings because of the right kidney shine through the liver. Two days later, after injecting again 740 MBq of (99m)Tc-RBC, we performed a single photon emission tomography (SPET) scan but still this scan was nondiagnostic even in the delayed images of the liver. Three days later, after the iv injection of 185 MBq of technetium-99m-sulphur colloid ((99m)Tc-SC), we observed in the delayed SPET images of the liver, a mismatch defect with decreased focal uptake of (99m)Tc-SC at 60 min while the uptake of (99m)Tc-RBC at the same area was normal or slightly increased. The patient was then operated due to bleeding in the abdominal cavity. A cavernous hemangioma was found, confirmed by histology. The absorbed dose from all three diagnostic scanning procedures was: 4 mSv. In conclusion, the mismatch of the SPET delayed images between the (99m)Tc-RBC and the (99m)Tc-SC scans indicated that this procedure was effective for the diagnosis of liver cavernous hemangioma located in this unusual position.