Radiology, Vol 196, 421-426, Copyright © 1995 by Radiological Society of North America
Scintimammography: the complementary role of Tc-99m sestamibi prone breast imaging for the diagnosis of breast carcinoma
I Khalkhali, JA Cutrone, IG Mena, LE Diggles, RJ Venegas, HI Vargas, BL Jackson, S Khalkhali, JF Moss and SR Klein
Department of Radiology, Harbor-University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center, Torrance 90502, USA.
PURPOSE: To evaluate the complementary role of technetium-99m sestamibi
scintimammography in improvement of the sensitivity and specificity of
mammography in detection of carcinoma of the breast. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
At 5 and 60 minutes after intravenous injection of Tc-99m sestamibi,
scintimammograms were obtained in 147 women (age range, 18- 73 years; mean
age, 47.9 years +/- 10.2 [standard deviation]) with 153 lesions that
warranted breast biopsy (102 lesions) or fine-needle aspiration cytologic
analysis (51 lesions). There were 113 palpable and 40 nonpalpable lesions.
Lesion size on mammograms was 0.8 x 0.6 cm to 15.0 x 11.0 cm (mean, 2.82 cm
+/- 1.71 x 2.39 cm +/- 1.56). RESULTS: Scintimammographic findings were
true-positive in 47 biopsy-confirmed carcinomas, true-negative in 91 benign
lesions, false-positive in 11 lesions with benign histopathologic findings
(fibrocystic disease [n = 8] or fibroadenoma [n = 3]), and false-negative
in four lesions of infiltrating ductal carcinoma. The sensitivity of
scintimammography was 92.2%; specificity, 89.2%; positive predictive value,
81.0%; and negative predictive value, 95.8%. CONCLUSION: The authors
conclude that scintimammography is a sensitive test that can improve the
detection of breast carcinoma.
