The benefits of subtraction parathyroid scintigraphy

Hyperparathyroidism is a common endocrine disorder that has adverse effects on many systems of the human body. A very rapid and effective method is required to detect diseased parathyroid glands so that they can be removed. Parathyroid scintigraphy is the most sensitive imaging technique. Based on the method of subtracting the 99mTc-MIBI parathyroid scintigraphy image (taken up by the parathyroid glands and the thyroid gland), the 99m pertechnetate thyroid scintigraphy image (taken up solely by the thyroid gland), we have developed an application that enables the detection of these pathological parathyroid glands on static images. We first processed these images to facilitate contour detection, registered them, and segmented the parathyroid and thyroid glands in the first image and the thyroid gland in the second image. By testing this subtraction method on our database, we were able to improve the detection performance for pathological parathyroid glands by locating the responsible adenoma with a very low margin of error.