SINGLE PHOTON HIGH RESOLUTION EMISSION SCINTIMAMMOGRAPHY (SPEM): PRELIMINARY CLINICAL RESULTS

99m-Tc Prone scintimammography (PSM) shows low sensitivity when breast cancer (BC) sized less than 1 cm are concerned. We present a clinical application of a high resolution gamma camera able to image the breast in similar conditions of X ray mammography.10 patients were submitted to PSM by Anger Camera and to SPEM (cranio-caudal view with the breast under moderate compression) 1 h after having given 20 mCi of 99mTc MIBI i.v. 2 lesions were T2, 4 Tic and 2 Tlb carcinomas, while the remaining 2 were fibroadenomata(F) . SPEM correctly diagnosed all the 8 malignant lesions;on the contrary PSM failed to detect the 2 Tlb BC. Anger Camera showed negative findings in the case of benign lesions,l F showed moderate uptake at the SPEM image with questionable diagnostic results. SPEM increases the sensitivity of scintimammography improving the detectability of small sized breast tumors. The increase of sensitivity can probably mean a moderate decrease in specificity. Exact measurement of tumor/breast activity ratio is however possible in compressed breast with high resolution images (data not shown) with substantial improvement of the diagnostic value of SPEM. Our data encourage further studies on high resolution scintimammography.