The diagnostic significance of gallium lung uptake in patients with normal chest radiographs.

Nine patients were encountered with normal chest radiographs, but diffuse bilateral lung uptake of 67Ga-citrate. They were divided into three groups. The first consisted of 6 patients who had lymphoma or leukemia and had had multiple cycles of chemotherapy. Here, abnormal uptake may have resulted from a toxic effect of the drugs or from a low-grade, subclinical infectious process. The 2 patients in the second group were drug addicts and a subradiographic interstitial inflammatory reaction was probably responsible for abnormal uptake. The last patient had diffuse uptake of 67Ga-citrate throughout the lungs two weeks before lymphomatous infiltrates became radiographically visible.