[Three-dimensional fusion imaging of lymphoscintigraphy and MDCT for sentinel node biopsy in breast cancer]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of three-dimensional (3D) fusion imaging of lymphoscintigraphy with 99mTc phytate and MDCT (four-slice CT) for sentinel node biopsy in breast cancer. Volume-rendering images generated by MDCT were fused with lymphoscintigrams on a personal computer. The subjects were 7 patients with clinically negative nodes. In all patients, sentinel nodes were identified by lymphoscintigraphy, and the anatomical locations of sentinel nodes were clearly demonstrated by 3D-fusion imaging. 3D-fusion imaging of lymphoscintigraphy and MDCT is expected to be a promising method for sentinel node biopsy in breast cancer.