PURPOSE: To investigate a national equipment of intraoperatory gamma detection in the identification of sentinel lymph node. METHODS: Thirty young adult male rats were used. After anesthetized, animals were divided into two groups of 15 animals each. Animals from group A received dextram 500 - Tc99 radiopharmaceutical and patent blue V and those from group B received only patent blue V to map the lymphatic drainage. The presence of radiation in the background area, in the area of injection and of the ex vivo sentinel lymph node of group A were measured. After the exeresis, each lymph node in group A and in group B was mixed forming a new random sequence and the radioactive reading of each lymph node was carried out, using both pieces of equipment. RESULTS: The hottest sentinel lymph node was identified by the national equipment when radiation was measured in the area of limphatic drainage after the Dextran 500 was injected. Also, the ex vivo sentinel lymph node. The national equipment has also detected radiation in the lymph nodes that had not received radiopharmaceutical, leading to false positive, checked by the application of Mann-Whitney tests and Student's paired t-tests. The Cronbach alpha has shown high internal consistency of data 0,9416. CONCLUSIONS: The national equipment of intraoperatory gamma detection identifies the LS and showed false positives LS and needs improvement.
Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy; Equipment; Research Design; Rats
