[Scintigraphy using Technetium 99 m pyrophosphate in detection of bone metastasis of breast cancers. Analysis of 310 examinations].

Three hundred and ten bone scintigraphies were carried out in patients with a carcinoma of the breast. The results of these studies were compared not only with radiological findings but also the clinical and paraclinical course of the patients, the period of observation being between 8 and 44 months. Amongst the scintigrams in which no abnormality was detected, approximately 3.3% were obtained in patients with osteolytic metastases, the majority of these patients also having a rapidly growing primary tumourmamongst the patients with zones of hyperfixation and, at the same time, non-fixing metastases, 14/22 diedvery rapidly with diffuse bone metastases, this confirming the notion of poor prognosis in this "false negative" group. 11.3% of the abnormal results involved patients who showed no bone lesions more than 6 months after radio-isotopic examination "false positives". Of these, 12/18 were single lessions (41%). 14% of examinations carried out on a routine basis demonstrated metastases for which clinical and/or radiological confirmation was obtained only 2 to 9 months later.