Ahmad Sohail, Muhammad Sohail, Muhammad Asim, Javed Shakir, Khalid M Durrani.
Evaluation of sentinel lymph node biopsy with methylene blue dye in early carcinoma breast.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;4(3):233-5.

Aim: To determine the accuracy and feasibility of this procedure to incorporate the sentinel node biopsy in future surgical practice. Design: Prospective and experimental. Patients and Methods: Between July 2001 and August 2002, 30 female patients, diagnosed as carcinoma breast on fine needle aspiration cytology with clinical stage T1-2, N0, M0 were recruited for study. Under general anesthesia 1ml 1% methylene blue sterilized dye was injected in subareolar region of breast in all patients and gently massaged the breast for 1-2 minutes to disperse the dye in the lymphatics. Then the blue stained sentinel node was detected and biopsied from the axilla. Later all patients underwent routine mastectomy with axillary clearance. Results:Over all sentinel node identification rate was 93.4% (28 of 30 patients) and false negative rate was 7.1% (2 of 28 patients). Sensitivity and specificity were (85.7%) and (71.4%) respectively with positive and negative predictive values were (75.0%) and (83.3%) respectively. Conclusion: The findings of the study support the hypothesis that sentinel node is a true representative and predictor of the axillary nodal status in early carcinoma breast and the procedure can be performed safely with cheaper and feasible methylene blue dye with confidence.

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