Pilocarpine as a Diagnostic AID in the Scintillography of Sialopathies

Abstract

A report is given of the results of scintillography of the salivary glands with various pathological conditions, using ¹³¹I and ^99mTcO⁻ as the active substance, and the parasympathicomimeticum, pilocarpine nitrate, as an agent selectively to interfere with the distribution and movements of radioactivity between various tissue/fluid compartments. The results show, among other things, that utilization of pilocarpine nitrate is of advantage in the evaluation of both the function and the scintillographic appearance of diseases of the salivary glands. Simultaneously the results strongly suggest that a conventional scintillography of the salivary glands, performed alone, did not give sufficient information about the nature and localization of the disease. Instead, the function of the glands has necessarily to be examined as well. Hence, it might be understandable that from the viewpoint of the excretory and concentration capacities of the diseased salivary glands, there must be significant differences even between cases belonging to the same clinical group, depending on the prevailing phase of the pathological process.