The role of gallium-67 imaging in the detection of foci in recent cases of fever of unknown origin.

We have assembled data from patients with fever of unknown origin who underwent gallium scintigraphy during the past 5 years in order to obtain a more current sampling of patients, and evaluated the role of gallium scintigraphy retrospectively. Of the 36 patients studied, gallium scintigraphy was positive and contributed to the detection of the foci or fever origins in 17 (47.2%). The ratio of neoplastic diseases with myeloproliferative and with lymphoproliferative disorders was relatively high compared with previous reports. However, gallium scintigraphy did not contribute to the diagnosis of collagen disease. With the ability to detect both inflammatory and neoplastic lesions, gallium scintigraphy was useful in detecting the foci of fevers of unknown origin.