Quantitative gallium 67 lung scan to assess the inflammatory activity in the pneumoconioses.

Gallium 67 lung scan has recently become increasingly used to evaluate the biological activity of alveolitis of interstitial lung diseases and to stage the disease process. In order to have a more precise and objective indicator of the inflammatory activity in the lung, we and others have developed computer-based quantitative techniques to process the 67Ga scan. In this report, we compare the results of three such computer-based methods of analysis of the scans of 38 normal humans and 60 patients suspected to have pneumoconiosis. Results of previous investigations on the mechanisms of 67Ga uptake in interstitial lung disease are reviewed. These data strengthen the view that quantitative 67Ga lung scan has become a standard technique to assess inflammatory activity in the interstitial lung diseases and that computer-based method of analysis of the scan provides an index of inflammatory activity of the lung disease that correlates with lung lavage and biopsy indices of inflammation in the lung tissue.