[The role of 99mTc-MIBI mammoscintigraphy in the diagnosis of breast cancer].

Among several investigative methods currently undergoing evaluation for the differentiation of biological features of breast mass lesions, mammoscintigraphy with different radiopharmaceuticals appears promising. The reported study evaluated the efficacy of 99mTc-MIBI mammoscintigraphy in detection of the malignancy of focal breast lesions. Mammography, 99mTc-MIBI mammoscintigraphy were performed in 51 women with palpable breast mass lesions. Following surgical removal of the abnormalities, histological examination revealed 40 malignant and 11 benign breast mass lesions. In the mammoscintigraphy, early (5 min p. i. of MIBI) and late (2 h p. i. of MIBI) planar images of the breast and the axillary regions were evaluated visually and semiquantitatively. The sensitivity and specificity values of MIBI mammoscintigraphy were in the detection malignant breast lesions evaluated visually according to the early images 95% and 73%, according to the late images 98% and 82%, respectively. Revealed to the quantitative results the corresponding results were according to the early images 90% and 64% according to the late images 95% an 64%. The visual scores and the quantitative T/NT values with MIBI demonstrated a significant difference between malignant and benign breast mass lesions. A significant difference was also found as concerns the grade of malignancy from the MIBI accumulation. The late MIBI images seemed optimal. In the detection of metastatic lymph node involvement, the sensitivity and specificity with MIBI were 53% and 81%. It was concluded that MIBI (2 h p. i.) mammoscintigraphy is a useful and simple method for differentiation of malignant breast abnormalities from benign lesions and for determination of the grade of malignancy.