[Technic and clinical use of radioactive labelling of autologous granulocytes].

Gamma-camera imaging after injection of radiolabelled autologous leucocytes can be very helpful in the diagnosis, localization and further clinical treatment of inflammatory diseases. We present a technique allowing sterile separation of white blood cells and labelling with 99mTc-phytate or -oxine and with 111In-oxine, -oxine sulphate or -tropolone. The method is non-invasive and the radiation dose amounts to less than 80 mrad using 100 microCi 111Indium. The use of radiolabelled granulocytes is of particular diagnostic value in patients with septicaemia of unknown origin. Whole body scanning allows not only visualization of enhanced splenic uptake in septicaemia, but also localization of an inflammatory process. Preferential indications for a diagnostic approach using radiolabelled granulocytes are inflammatory abdominal processes which cannot easily be documented by means of other non-invasive techniques, such as inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's diseases and ulcerative colitis), arthritic processes and abscesses of the liver and spleen, as well as subphrenic and retroperitoneal abscesses. Untreated osteomyelitis can be located with the help of labelled granulocytes, but in patients treated with antibiotics a false negative result is obtained in approximately 50% of cases for as yet unknown reasons, even in the presence of a still active osteomyelitic process.