[Scintigraphy in breast cancer]

Scintigraphy was evaluated in comparison to clinical and paraclinical methods used in diagnosis of breast tumors. 32 patients with palpable breast tumors were investigated by clinical examination, ultrasound, mammography and scintigraphy. Different radiopharmaceuticals marked with 99mTc were used, having different affinity for the tumoral tissue. A Siemens Diacam gamma camera was used. Patients were submitted to dynamic study of early blood-pool and tissular phase, followed by late static incidences. Regions of interest were compared with similar areas of the contralateral breast. Conclusions were compared to histopathological diagnosis. We have calculated sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) for each of the investigation methods. The sensitivity was 80% for clinical examination, 100% for ultrasonography, 66% for mammography and 100% for scintigraphy. The specificity was 77% for clinical examination, 50% for ultrasonography, 90% for mammography and 80% for scintigraphy. PPV was 75% for clinical examination, 60% for ultrasonography, 80% for mammography and 82% for mammography. NPV was 82% for clinical examination, 100% for ultrasonography, 71% for mammography and 100% for scintigraphy. Good correlation was found between scintigraphy and histopathology. Ultrasound and mammography also confirmed, in most cases, the clinically suspected diagnosis. Including scintigraphy in the investigation protocol for breast tumors will allow a better assessment of the therapy.