Title: Role of B Mode in Evaluating Malignant Breast Masses
Authors: Dr Neethu Thomas, Dr Sajitha K, Dr Josey Verghese T
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v5i8.165
Abstract
Background: Breast cancer now represents the most common female malignancy in developing and developed world, and is the second leading cause of cancer death among women. USG is an ideal imaging modality due to its cost effectiveness and no ionizing radiation. Sonography has proved a useful adjunct to mammography, offering heightened discrimination of palpable lesions, notably in the more radiodense premenopausal breast. Accurate differentiation between benign and malignant breast nodules could result in improved care and reduction of patient discomfort, morbidity and health care cost. The purpose of the study is to help in establishing the role of sonography in differentiating malignant and benign breast lumps.
Aim: 1. To determine whether real-time B-Mode ultrasound is reliable in differentiating benign from malignant breast nodules.
- Compare and correlate the ultrasound findings with biopsy results.
- Assess the risk of malignancy for each type of ultrasound features in breast nodules.
Materials and Methods: This is an observational study with diagnostic test evaluation. Study was conducted at Dept of Radiodiagnosis in our hospital, a tertiary care centre with advanced services and one of the major referral centres in central Kerala. Breast ultrasound studies were performed for 64 women. Confirmation of ultrasound results was made by histopathology done by pathologist. Later the tissue diagnosis results were correlated with sonological findings by statistical analysis.
Results: In our study sonography showed a sensitivity of 95.3%, specificity of 85.7% and PPV of 93.2%. The accuracy of sonological evaluation was 92.2% with NPV of 90%.
Conclusion: Our study shows that a combination of B-Mode and Doppler ultrasound should continued to be used as an adjunct to mammography. The value is greatest when mammographic findings are indeterminate and the decision to biopsy or follow-up can be enhanced by the addition of ultrasound.
Keywords: Ultrasound scan, malignancy, benign.
