2024-02-03 21:13:47
The Nuclear Medicine Center began performing stereotactic guided breast biopsies
He Center for Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy “Dr. Nestor Kirchner (CEMENURNK) recently incorporated new equipment in the breast diagnosis service. Likewise, the medical director of the Center, Fernando Trachtaannounced that the inauguration of the General Electric Positron Emission Tomograph (PET) will soon be possible, which is already 95% installed.
Positron emission tomography, better known as PET (Positron Emission Tomography), is a non-invasive imaging diagnostic and research technique capable of measuring the metabolic activity of the human body. Unlike Magnetic Resonance (MRI) and Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) that detect the structure of organs and blood flow, PET shows the state of organs and tissues.
“Details just need to be finalized for the start-up and we would begin to carry out this study, which is very important for the early detection of some lesions for the monitoring and control of cancer patientsr”, specified the official.
“The disease does not take a vacation, neither do we, we are caring for our patients with the same rigor as from day one,” explained the doctor.
New technology
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer worldwide. Mammography plays a fundamental role in timely detection, for which there are different imaging methods to detect and study potentially cancerous lesions.
In this framework, the medical specialist in diagnostic imaging María Paula Antueno He referred to the guided stereotactic breast biopsies that are performed at the institution, following the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment, unique in Northern Argentina.
Stereotactic breast biopsy is used when a small mass or calcifications are seen on a mammogram but cannot be seen using breast ultrasound. Tissue samples are sent to a pathologist for examination.
Breast biopsy with a core needle (core or vacuum biopsy) guided by stereotaxyis an alternative that has demonstrated advantages in safety and costs, in addition to being less invasive and not requiring an operating room.
“What we are doing in the province of Formosa, in fact, it did not exist in the north, is vacuum-assisted biopsy under stereotactic guidance. This is a procedure in which when we find a suspicious lesion in a traditional mammogram, a biopsy is performed,” the doctor explained.
He said that it is a method by which the imaging specialist seeks to reach the lesion in order to categorize it, for which a biopsy must be performed.
As an important fact, Antueno stressed that prior to this incorporation, patients had to travel to other jurisdictions to perform this diagnosis, and today it is accessible to everyone, whether or not they have social work. “In fact, the last patients we did did not have social work and were able to access this type of diagnosis”, he emphasized.
He insisted on emphasizing that “when they are microclassifications that we cannot see by any other method and we cannot access them, the only way is through the mammogram. We use a stereotactic guide that uses different coordinates to be able to see it three-dimensionally and be able to locate the lesion. Then we enter with a probe and it is suctioned,” she explained.
He said that the great advantage for the patient is that when the procedure is performed in Formosa, she does it on an outpatient basis, local anesthesia is administered to minimize discomfort, and she returns home on the same day. “The procedure lasts an hour, it is taken to the pathologist, who analyzes the sample, according to the type of lesion,” she explained.
Other mammograms
Antueno explained that the Center is also performing contrast-enhanced spectral mammograms, a method that uses intravenous iodine contrast to evaluate metabolism, “to see if there is any type of lesion that captures or does not capture contrast and, accordingly, determine its functionality.” ”.
He said that it is being widely used in pre-surgical studies, or prior to chemotherapy treatments to later “evaluate what type of evolution it has with the chemotherapy treatment.”
The specialist considered that “the interdisciplinary team that treats the patient finds the diagnosis obtained by the biopsy extremely useful and is able to evaluate with complementary methods the issue of extension, where it is going and what extension the initial lesion has.”
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