-Case Reports-

Usefulness of Ultrasonographic Detective Flow Imaging for Detecting Parathyroid Tumors: A Report of Two Cases

Mami Matsui^1,†, Tomoo Jikuzono^1,2,†, Shoko Kure³, Osamu Ishibashi^1,2, Haruki Akasu⁴ and Iwao Sugitani¹

¹Department of Endocrine Surgery, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan
²Laboratory of Biological Macromolecules, Department of Applied Life Sciences, Graduate School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka, Japan
³Department of Integrated Diagnostic Pathology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan
⁴Department of Endocrine Surgery, Nippon Medical School Musashi Kosugi Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan
^†Contributed equally

Parathyroid tumors (PTs) are sometimes difficult to diagnose because they are small and have low-velocity blood flow, which can be missed by current imaging modalities. PTs consist of parathyroid adenoma (PA), parathyroid cyst, and parathyroid carcinoma (PC). Detective flow imaging (DFI) is a new imaging technology that displays low-velocity blood flow. Herein, we report two cases in which DFI was useful for diagnosis of PTs. One patient had a PA and a parathyroid cyst in close proximity, and the other had a PC. To our knowledge, this is the first report to demonstrate the usefulness of DFI in the diagnosis of PTs.

J Nippon Med Sch 2023; 90: 460-464

Keywords
detective flow imaging, parathyroid tumor, parathyroid carcinoma, superb microvascular imaging, color doppler ultrasonography

Correspondence to
Tomoo Jikuzono, MD, PhD, Department of Endocrine Surgery, Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8602, Japan
t-jikuzono@nms.ac.jp

Received, May 16, 2022
Accepted, August 24, 2022