Radionuclide Detection of Diffuse Interstitial Pulmonary Calcification

Abstract

Two patients who had hypercalcemia, one from multiple myeloma and the other from metastatic carcinoma, showed striking concentrations of bone-seeking radiopharmaceuticals in the lungs on routine bone scans. Neither patient had roentgenographic evidence of intrapulmonary calcification. Histologic examination in one patient showed extensive interstitial pulmonary calcification. These cases dramatically illustrate the capability of radionuclides to detect interstitial pulmonary calcification when radiographic demonstration is lacking. The early detection of extraskeletal calcification by bone-seeking radionuclides provides a unique opportunity, not previously available, to study metastatic calcification and the effects of treatment. (<i>JAMA</i>230:992-995, 1974)