Lymphoscintigraphy
What is the 'lymphatic system'?
The lymphatic system is an important organ system in the body, in relation to the immune system. Basically, it is channels and organs that deal with the immune system of the body in fighting infection or even malignancy.
What is 'lymphoscintigraphy'?
Lymphoscintigraphy is a procedure that is used to determine if, for example, a lymph node which is draining a tumor, that lymph node is involved with cancer or not. It's a way to look at the extent of disease in the onset of cancer.
What is a 'scintigram'?
A 'Centigram' is basically an image of the mammoscintigraphy procedure. So, as I mentioned, for example we can, after injection of radiotracer around the tumor in a melanoma as we take the images and see the lymphatic channels. This is the centigram that we are obtaining to see what lymph node they collect.
How is lymphoscintigraphy most commonly used?
What other uses does lymphoscintigraphy have?
This term is also used for another procedure and that is when, for example, the patient has what we call lymphodema, which is increased resistances to the flow of lymphatic's. These patients usually have enlarged limbs, for example either lower limbs or higher upper limbs. The question is, “Is there obstruction to the lymphatic drainage from that limb?” We can use centigram procedure or lymphoscintigraphy procedure to see if there is such an obstruction.
What does the equipment used in lymphoscintigraphy look like?
The equipment that is used for lymphoscintigraphy is the same as that which we use for general nuclear medicine and for cardiac nuclear medicine. There's really no difference. It's essentially a gamma camera system that has detectors for detecting gamma rays to form an image.
How does lymphoscintigraphy work?
How is lymphoscintigraphy performed?
What are the benefits of lymphoscintigraphy?
What are the risks of lymphoscintigraphy?
Risks are extremely small because the radiotracer that we administer is in very small amounts. It is radioactive material, so there is a very small risk associated with that. However, in lymphoscintigraphy the amount of the radioactive material is extremely small, actually smaller than most other nuclear medicine techniques, and so the risk is extremely small.
What will I experience during lymphoscintigraphy?
For a lymphoscintigraphy, as the patient comes to the clinic, again they are greeted and an appropriate history is taken, making sure that the procedure is indicated. And then, depending upon where the tumour is, for example if it is breast cancer or a melanoma, a small amount of radio tracer is delivered under the skin or around the tumour, according to the protocol. And then the patient is basically taken to the camera system and dynamic images are obtained from the patient to see where the pattern of the drainage is. And finally, when we see a focal accumulation in some area, this tells us this could be the lymph node, the sentinel lymph node. Then that area on the skin is marked and that's the end of the lymphoscintigraphy procedure.
