In patients with negative mammographic findings

Dilon Diagnostics has reported that Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI) for the study contributes to the detection of malignant or high-risk lesions in patients with negative or indeterminate mammographic findings, according to results of a multicenter study.

BSGI for the study has been conducted using a Dilon 6800 Gamma Camera, a high-resolution, small field-of-view gamma camera, optimised to perform BSGI. With BSGI, the patient receives a pharmaceutical tracing agent that is absorbed by all the cells in the body.

Due to their increased rate of metabolic activity, cancerous cells in the breast absorb a greater amount of the tracing agent than the normal surrounding tissue and generally appear as ‘hot spots’ on the BSGI image.

In the study, BSGI was conducted as an adjunct diagnostic imaging modality at four institutions and was compared to biopsy or follow up imaging. The biopsy results were classified as positive (malignancy or high-risk lesions such as ADH, ALH, LCIS) or negative (benign conditions not requiring additional intervention). The imaging studies were classified as positive (BI-RADS 4 or 5), negative (BI-RADS 1 or 2), or indeterminate (BI-RADS 0 or 3).

BSGI was utilised in a total of 2,004 patients in the study. Pathology or follow-up imaging was available for 1,042 cases resulting in 250 positive and 792 negative findings. BSGI demonstrated an overall sensitivity of 91% and specificity of 77%.

The company said that BSGI has improved the detection of malignant and high-risk lesions especially when used in the clinical work up of patients with negative or indeterminate mammograms when compared to mammography, which demonstrated a sensitivity of 71%.

Margaret Bertrand, principle author of the study, director of Breast Imaging at Solis Bertrand Breast Center, said: “In our experience, BSGI has been extremely useful in efficiently, economically, and accurately augmenting breast imaging in those patients that really need it the most, those with complicated or indeterminate mammograms.”