A imaging technique that can be used as an adjunct to traditional mammograms.
Increases cancer detection rate from 3 to 12 cancers per thousand women when added to mammography.
Uses technetium-99m, a short-lived radioactive tracer injected intravenously, after which the breast is scanned with a gamma camera.
While mammography gives an anatomical image, MBI gives a functional image as tumors uptake the radiotracer.
Can be used with dense breasts and offers a significant advantage of ultrasound as a supplemental screening modality as it can be interpreted rapidly and has few false positive findings.
Study show sensitivity of MBI and contrast enhanced breast MRI are similar, but specificity of MBI is better, decreasing the number of false positive findings.
The radiation dose from MBI is 2.4 mSv.