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BSGI/MBI vs. MRI, these findings will be presented in an abstract at the 2011 Radiological Society of North America ( RSNA 2011 ) annual meeting to be held in Chicago, Nov. 27 through Dec. 2, 2011.

Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI), also known as Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI), has been found to be equivalent to Magnetic Resonance Imaging ( MRI ) as an adjunct imaging modality in the diagnosis of breast cancer. BSGI/MBI may be especially useful for the evaluation of high-risk women or those with dense breasts. These findings will be presented in an abstract at the 2011 Radiological Society of North America ( RSNA 2011 ) annual meeting to be held in Chicago, Nov. 27 through Dec. 2, 2011.

According to the study authors, MRI has become increasingly popular as an adjunct to mammography in the diagnosis of breast cancer. Despite its sensitivity in lesion detection, MRI is expensive and can cause patient discomfort. BSGI/MBI has similar sensitivity to MRI, costs less and is comfortable for the patient. This study aimed to directly compare the two modalities.

It was concluded that BSGI/MBI results led to further workup and detection of occult malignancies. In fact, negative MRIs without contradictory BSGI / MBI results would have led to six missed malignant tumors in this study. Also, the authors noted that as the study demonstrated BSGI / MBI’s equivalency to MRI in the diagnosis of breast cancer, that BSGI/MBI may be useful for the evaluation of high-risk women or those with dense breasts. For this study BSGI/MBI was conducted with a high-resolution gamma camera, the Dilon 6800®.

Beyond demonstrating that BSGI/MBI is equivalent to MRI in the diagnoses of breast cancer, Dr. Nathalie Johnson, Chief Breast Surgeon at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Ore., and author on this study, expanded upon BSGI/MBI’s clinical relevance: “Its application may be particularly relevant for evaluation of newly diagnosed breast cancer to rule out additional disease with a lower false positive rate.” Additional researchers on the study were Esther Han, M.D. and Margie Glissmeyer in Portland, Ore.

Source: Dilon Diagnostics