Clinical radionuclide perfusion lymphangiography.

In an initial pilot study technetium-99m-labelled human serum albumin was perfused directly into bipedal lymphatic cannulae prior to a standard lymphangiogram, in order to assess rapidly normal and abnormal lymph flow patterns in the lower extremity, pelvic and para-aortic lymph chains. A continuing study of these patients has lent further support to the hypothesis that the radionuclide perfusion study, when negative, may prove more accurate in some patients than the standard lymphangiogram in predicting the clinical course and/or the results of histopathological lymph node examination. The radionuclide technique also seems to meet, in this preliminary evaluation, the requirements for a pre-lymphangiogram screening study, particularly for use in high-risk patients.