%0 Journal Article %A Koichiro Abe %A Shingo Baba %A Hirofumi Sawamoto %A Yoshitaka Tanabe %A Yasuhiro Maruoka %A Shinji Ogawa %A Masayuki Sasaki %A Hiroshi Honda %T The clinical value of SPECT/CT for sentinel node mapping in patients with uterine cervical cancer %D 2011 %J Journal of Nuclear Medicine %P 1849-1849 %V 52 %N supplement 1 %X 1849 Objectives Conventional sentinel node (SN) lymphoscintigraphy has been mainly performed with planar images. The purpose of this study was to address the clinical value of SPECT/CT for SN mapping in patients with uterine cervical cancer as compared to planar image. Methods Twenty-three patients with uterine cervical cancer, 22 squamous and 1 adenosquamous cell carcinoma, were enrolled in this study. Patients’ age ranged from 25 to 37 years old. FIGO stage was IA2 in 1 case, IB1 in 21 cases and IB2 in 1 case. On the day before surgery, 37 MBq Tc-99m phytate was injected in the mucosa of each quadrant of uterine cervix. Acquisition of anterior planar image and SPECT/CT were performed 60 min after the injection using a hybrid system composed of a double head gamma camera with a low-dose x-ray CT (Symbia T6, Siemens). SN was also detected by hand-held gamma probe during operation in all 23 patients. Detection and localization of SN were independently evaluated by following 3 procedures: anterior planar image, SPECT with non-contrast enhanced pelvic CT (SPECT with CT: side by side reading), and SPECT/CT. Results At least one SN was detected by any procedures in all patients. The numbers of identified SNs were 70, 80, and 78 by planar image, SPECT with CT, and SPECT/CT, respectively. Metastases were pathologically identified at 4 LNs in 3 patients. No further metastatic LN was detected in these patients. The diagnostic ability of SPECT with CT and SPECT/CT localization was also analyzed based on the results of intraoperative gamma probe method as a standard. The diagnostic accuracy for SN localization was 55.0 % and 62.8 % in SPECT with CT and SPECT/CT, respectively. SPECT/CT easily delineated external iliac versus internal iliac or obtulator nodes. Conclusions SPECT/CT improves SN detection in patients with uterine cervical cancer as compared to planar image. SPECT/CT is especially useful in identification of anatomic localization of SN %U