Mammoscintigraphy with technetium-99m-sestamibi in suspected breast cancer.
Our goal was to determine the clinical usefulness of 99mTc-sestamibi to identify breast cancer in patients prior to biopsy.


METHODS
We studied 66 patients who received 20 mCi 99mTc-sestamibi intravenously. Lateral and anterior planar images were gathered within 30 min of the injection. Only focal increased uptake was interpreted as positive. Confirmatory pathologic diagnoses were obtained within 2 mo. The prevalence of breast cancer in our sample was 54%.


RESULTS
We report an overall sensitivity of 83% and specificity of 93% for the diagnosis of breast cancer. In palpable lesions, the sensitivity was of 94% with a specificity of 91%, while in nonpalpable abnormalities the sensitivity was of 64% with a 100% specificity. Six patients with a malignancy had negative scans, four of these lesions were nonpalpable. Only two of 31 patients with benign lesions had an abnormal scan.


CONCLUSIONS
Mammoscintigraphy with 99mTc-sestamibi has high specificity and adequate sensitivity for the noninvasive diagnosis of breast carcinomas.
Villanueva-Meyer
J
J
Department of Radiology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77555-0793, USA.
Leonard
M H
MH
Briscoe
E
E
Cesani
F
F
Ali
S A
SA
Rhoden
S
S
Hove
M
M
Cowan
D
D
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001706:Biopsy; D001940:Breast / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi
D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi