Community Breast Center in Portland Finds BSGI Capable of Significantly
Changing Clinical Management in Patients
NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Using Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI) has significantly changed patient management at one breast center in Portland, Oregon. A group of radiologists and surgeons from Legacy Health System recently reported that although still fairly new to BSGI, the procedure has brought about considerable change in their practice.
Earlier this month the institution's surgical team presented data at the North Pacific Surgical Conference on their center's initial experience employing BSGI and the influence it has had on patient care. The study reviewed 176 patient cases referred to BSGI due to one of the following indications: suspicious clinical or mammographic findings, mammographically dense breast tissue or a new diagnosis of breast cancer requiring additional work-up. Of the 47 patients with a recent breast cancer diagnosis, BSGI detected additional disease in three patients, two with cancer in the opposite breast and one with an additional site in the same breast. BSGI also detected cancer in 4 of the 14 patients with a mammographic BIRADS 2 rating, typically indicative of benign findings such as cysts or fibroadenomas. BSGI changed patient management in 14.7 percent of cases with another 6.8 percent where BSGI could have helped to prevent an unneeded biopsy.
According to the authors, BSGI is playing an important role in their breast patient management and has the potential to help prevent unnecessary breast biopsies and interval imaging studies for some BIRADS 3 and 4 cases. They have found it to be a useful adjunct imaging tool, especially for further evaluation of breast tissue in newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. One of the biggest benefits, they state, is that the false positive rate for BSGI was only 6.2 percent which is far less than studies that utilize MRI for these types of patients.
About BSGI with the Dilon 6800 Gamma Camera
Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI) performed with the Dilon 6800, is a molecular breast imaging technique that can see lesions independent of tissue density and discover very early stage cancers. BSGI serves as a complementary diagnostic adjunct procedure to mammography and ultrasound for difficult-to- diagnose patients. With BSGI, the patient receives a radioactive tracing agent that is absorbed by all the cells in the body. Cancerous cells in the breast, due to their increased rate of metabolic activity, absorb a greater amount of the tracing agent than normal, healthy cells and generally appear as "hot spots" on the BSGI image.
BSGI is ideal for patients with mammograms that are difficult to interpret due to a variety of factors, such as: dense breast tissue, suspicious areas on a mammogram, lumps that can be felt but not seen with mammography or ultrasound, implants and breast augmentation, scarring from previous surgeries and for women with an increased risk of breast cancer diagnosis.
About Dilon Technologies
Dilon Technologies is bringing innovative new medical imaging products to market. Dilon's cornerstone product, the Dilon 6800, is a high-resolution, small field-of-view gamma camera, optimized to perform Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI), a molecular breast imaging procedure which images the metabolic activity of breast lesions through radiotracer uptake. Many leading medical centers around the country are now offering BSGI to their patients, including: Cornell University Medical Center, New York; George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, D.C.; Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago; and The Rose, Houston. For more information on Dilon Technologies please visit http://www.dilon.com.
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