51Cr-bleomycin in the diagnosis of tumours of the chest.

51Cr-bleomycin was used for the scintigraphic diagnosis of primary and secondary tumours of the thorax. The study was based on observations in 104 patients. The scintigraphy was performed using a gamma camera coupled to an on-line computer. Active lesions were scored using a semiquantitative scale of scores 0 to 5. Images were subdivided into 222 regions considered. In 72 of these, the presence of disease was diagnosed (64 malignant, 8 non-malignant) and 150 regions were classified as free from disease. At the decision threshold of score 2, over-all sensitivity and specificity of the scintigraphic detection of malignant tumours amounted to 97 and 79%, respectively. Inflammatory changes displayed some detectable accumulation of 51Cr-bleomycin but scores attributed to these lesions did not exceed the value of 2.