Non-Invasive Diagnosis of Posttraumatic Thoracic Splenosis

Intrathoracic splenosis is a generally asymptomatic entity incidentally diagnosed after the completion of an Rx, CT scan or MRI for another reason.

The performance of scintigraphy with ^99mTc-labelled heat-denatured erythrocytes allows the noninvasive diagnosis of this entity and avoids more aggressive diagnostic techniques such as FNAP or thoracotomy. Because this splenic tissue may be partially or fully functioning and therefore may have some beneficial immune function for the patient, the management of this entity should be conservative.

Radioisotopic scintigraphy with ^99mTc labelled heat-denatured erythrocytes is the technique with the greatest specificity in the demonstration of splenic tissue.

The presence of subpleural pulmonary nodules, associated or not with intra-abdominal nodules, together with the existence of previous partial or total splenectomy, traumatic or not, with or without associated rupture of the diaphragm, should raise suspicion of the presence of intrathoracic splenosis.