Chest X-ray Artifact Caused by Bilateral 99mTc-Antimony Trisulfite Injection for Sentinel Node Imaging in a Patient With Breast Cancer.

ABSTRACT

A 52-year-old woman diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma of both breasts had a chest x-ray for preoperative assessment. A striking artifact was noted by the x-ray technologist, who, as a result, became very concerned about radiation exposure from the patient. The patient had undergone bilateral sentinel lymph node injections in the nuclear medicine department with Tc-antimony trisulfite colloid just 2 hours before the chest x-ray. Radiation exposure to the x-ray technologist was determined to be similar to 8 hours of naturally occurring background radiation (∼2.96 µSv).