Hormonal variations in the vascularity of breast tissue

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are sonographically detectable variations in breast glandularity and vascularity due to hormonal changes during the course of a normal menstrual cycle.

Gray scale and color and power Doppler sonographic evaluations were performed on 7 premenopausal patients over the course of 1 menstrual cycle. Progesterone and estradiol levels were measured from saliva collected from the patients. Vascularity was measured by mean color level, area covered by color pixels, and color-weighted fractional area.

Of the 5 volunteers not taking oral contraceptives, 4 had peaks in vascularity correlating with midcycle peak hormonal levels (50%-320% from baseline) on power Doppler sonography. On color Doppler sonography, 3 of 5 patients also had peaks in vascularity (60%-190% from baseline). The 2 patients taking oral contraceptives did not have any peaks in vascularity.

Vascularity changes in normal breast tissue that correlated with peak hormonal levels were detected in most of the volunteers. Therefore, hormonal variations in breast vascularity should be considered when evaluating breast lesions by sonography.