Journal of Postgraduate Medicine Medknow Publications and Staff Society of Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai, India ISSN: 0022-3859 EISSN: 0972-2823 Vol. 56, Num. 2, 2010, pp. 168-168

Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, Vol. 56, No. 2, April-June, 2010, pp. 168

Letter

Glucoheptonate for diagnosis of brain tumor

Wiwanitkit V

Wiwanitkit House, Bangkhae, Bangkok - 10160, Thailand

Correspondence Address: Prof. Viroj Wiwanitkit, Wiwanitkit House, Bangkhae, Bangkok - 10160, Thailand

wviroj@yahoo.com

Code Number: jp10045

PMID: 20622403

DOI: 10.4103/0022-3859.65275

Sir,

I read the publication on glucoheptonate by Jaiswal et al., with great interest. Jaiswal et al. reached the conclusion that "Glucoheptonate has high degree of specificity for neoplastic tissues of brain and may be used as a tracer for SPECT study to differentiate neoplastic intracranial lesions from non-neoplastic ones." ^[1] Indeed, glucoheptonate is acceptable in brain oncological imaging. Recently, Barai et al., proposed that glucoheptonate contributed to a reliable diagnostic modality to differentiate tumor recurrence from post-radiation gliosis in patients with medulloblastoma. ^[2] Barai et al., also noted that glucoheptonate is helpful for diagnosis of recurrent brain tumor. ^[3] However, additional data on the clinical usefulness of glucoheptonate is still required. First, the cost of this advanced approach compared to its utility must be systematically assessed. Second, the ability of glucoheptonate to differentiate between primary and metastatic lesions and among different kinds and grades of malignancies is still to be proven.

References

1.	Jaiswal S, Barai S; Rajkumar, Gambhir S, Ora M, Mahapatra AK. Evaluation of intracranial space-occupying lesion with Tc99m-glucoheptonate brain single photon emission computed tomography in treatment-naοve patients. J Postgrad Med 2009;55:180-4.  Back to cited text no. 1  [PUBMED]
2.	Barai S, Bandopadhayaya GP, Julka PK, Kale SS, Kumar R, Malhotra A, et al. Evaluation of Tc99m-glucoheptonate for SPECT functional imaging of medulloblastoma. J Clin Neurosci 2005;12:36-8.  Back to cited text no. 2
3.	Barai S, Rajkamal, Bandopadhayaya GP, Pant GS, Haloi AK, Malhotra A, et al. Thallium-201 versus Tc99m-glucoheptonate SPECT for evaluation of recurrent brain tumours: a within-subject comparison with pathological correlation. J Clin Neurosci 2005;12:27-31.  Back to cited text no. 3

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