DRAINAGE PATTERN OF THE UPPER MEDIAL QUADRANT OF THE BREAST IN YOUNG HEALTHY WOMEN AFTER SUBDERMAL INJECTION: A LYMPHSCINTIGRAPHIC STUDY

Abstract

This study examines the lymphaticdrainage after injection of a radiotracer in theupper medial quadrant of the right breast inyoung healthy female subjects. Most studiesconcerning lymphatic drainage pathways havefocused on the upper lateral quadrant of thebreast because of the high incidence ofcarcinoma in this quadrant while the drainagepattern of the medial quadrant has been lessstudied. We injected radiotracer (HumanSerum Albumin labeled with 99 technetium)subdermally into the upper medial quadrantof the right breast tissue of 33 young healthyfemale volunteers and obtained static imageswith a scintillation camera briefly afterinjection and approximately one hour afterinjection. We identified lymphatic pathways in82.8% of our subjects, lymph nodes in 79.3%and in 3.4%, a sentinel lymph node was foundin the internal mammary chain. In early images,lymph nodes were visualized in 65.5% ofsubjects while in 17.2% of subjects, lymphaticvessels only appeared on later images.