Indium-111 chloride imaging in patients with suspected abscesses: concise communication.

Two hundred and fifty-eight patients with clinically suspected inflammatory processes were studied. Seventy-two images were categorized as true positive; 211 as true negative. There were nine false-positive studies, four of which were due to activity in beds of excised organs. There were six false-negative studies, four of which were due to walled-off abscesses found either at surgery or biopsy. The sensitivity was 92%, the specificity 95%, and the accuracy 94%. This study shows that indium-111 chloride imaging provides a reliable way to locate inflammatory processes and overcomes the disadvantages of other imaging agents, for example gastrointestinal activity or the demonstration of healing surgical wounds with gallium-67, and the false-positive images due to cystic fibrosis and other respiratory diseases, or accessory spleens as seen with In-111-labeled white cells.