title: Complementary role of semiquantitative analysis of breast-specific gamma imaging in the diagnosis of breast cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated whether the interpretation of breast-specific gamma imaging (BSGI) with visual and semiquantitative analyses can improve the diagnosis of breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  The records of 114 women (mean age±SD, 49.6±9.8 years) who underwent BSGI, mammography, and ultrasound to evaluate a breast lesion or lesions were reviewed retrospectively. The breast lesions identified with BSGI were compared with those identified with mammography and ultrasound. BSGI was first interpreted visually, and then a semiquantitative analysis was performed. For the semiquantitative analysis, the uptake ratio for each breast lesion was calculated by dividing the tumor uptake by the contralateral normal breast uptake.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four of the 114 patients had two breast lesions, so a total of 118 breast lesions (42 malignant lesions and 76 benign lesions) were evaluated. A BSGI uptake ratio cutoff of 1.5, with values less than 1.5 indicating negative for cancer, as determined by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of our data (area under curve, 0.874), was used for semi-quantitative analysis. The sensitivity and specificity of BSGI with visual analysis alone for assessing malignant breast lesions were 76.2% (32/42) and 81.6% (62/76), respectively. For BSGI with visual and semiquantitative analyses, the sensitivity and specificity were 76.2% (32/42) and 92.1% (70/76), respectively. The sensitivity and specificity for mammography were 57.1% (24/42) and 81.6% (62/76), respectively. For ultrasound, the respective values were 97.6% (41/42) and 61.8% (47/76). BSGI with visual and semiquantitative analyses had a significantly higher specificity than BSGI with visual analysis alone, mammography, and ultrasound (all, p<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Semiquantitative analysis of BSGI with visual interpretation may be a useful complementary method for evaluating malignant breast lesions.
authors.forename: Kyoung Sik
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Surgery, Konkuk University Medical Center, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung Sik
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Hyun Woo
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Young Bum
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Jung-Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Nami
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Young
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: So
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult