[Efficacy of three-dimensional image fusion of lymphoscintigraphy and MDCT data sets in breast cancer]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of image fusion of lymphoscintigraphy with (99m)Tc phytate and volume-rendering images generated by multidetector-row CT (MDCT) in patients with breast cancer. The subjects were 25 patients with clinically negative nodes. Data from the two imaging modalities were fused on a personal computer. Thirty-five axillary sentinel nodes were identified by lymphoscintigraphy. The anatomical locations of sentinel nodes in 27 patients were clearly demonstrated by 3D-fusion imaging (84%). Image fusion of lymphoscintigraphy with (99m)Tc phytate and volume-rendering images is helpful for sentinel node biopsy in breast cancer.