Technetuim-99M-sestamibi scintimammography to differentiate breast masses

ABSTRACT

The aim of this project was to evaluate the feasibility of 99[MTC] methoxy-isobutylisonitrile [MIBI] as a tumour localizing agent in patients with palpable breast masses in comparison with mammography. Forty females with mean age 46.7 years had palpable breast masses were subjected to clinical examination, mammography, radionuclide scanning and biopsy for histopathologic confirmation. Mammography has the advantage of low cost, non invasive, with sensitivity 82%, specificity 33% and accuracy 75%, it can detect small lesions, but on the other h and it has the disadvantage of radiation exposure, and not reliable in dense breast or previously violated breast by infection, augmentation devices or previous surgery. 99[MTc] MIBI scan was performed on all 40 patients, we used a tumour to background ratio of 1.6 as the cut off level between benign and malignant in early uptake ratios. The present study showed a sensitivity of 97%, specificity 67% and accuracy 92.5%, these results indicate that 99[mTc] MIBI scintigraphy may provide additional information in the differentiation of malignant from benign lesions in patients with palpable breast masses