Galactography with Tomosynthesis Technique (Galactomosynthesis) - Renaissance of a Method?

For decades, conventional galactography was the only imaging technique capable of showing the mammary ducts. Today, diagnosis is based on a multimodal concept which combines high-resolution ultrasound with magnetic resonance (MR) mammography and ductoscopy/galactoscopy and has a sensitivity and specificity of up to 95%. This study used tomosynthesis in galactography for the first time and compared the synthetic digital 2D full-field mammograms generated with this technique with the images created using the established method of ductal sonography. Both methods should be able to detect invasive breast cancers and their precursors such as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) as well as being able to identify benign findings.

Five patients with pathological nipple discharge were examined using ductal sonography, contrast-enhanced 3D galactography with tomosynthesis and the synthetic digital 2D full-field mammograms generated with the latter method. Evaluation of the images created with the different imaging modalities was done by three investigators with varying levels of experience with complementary breast diagnostics (1, 5 and 15 years), and their evaluations were compared with the histological findings.

All 3 investigators independently evaluated the images created with ductal sonography, contrast-enhanced 3D galactography with tomosynthesis, and generated synthetic digital 2D full-field mammograms. Their evaluations were compared with the histopathological assessment of the surgical specimens resected from the 5 patients. There was 1 case of invasive breast cancer, 2 cases with ductal carcinoma in situ and 2 cases with benign findings. All 3 investigators made more mistakes when they used the standard imaging technique of ductal sonography to diagnose suspicious lesions than when they used contrast-enhanced galactography with tomosynthesis and the generated synthetic digital 2D full-field mammograms.

This is the first time breast tomosynthesis was used in galactography (galactomosynthesis) to create digital 3-dimensional images of suspicious findings. When used together with the generated synthetic digital 2D full-field mammograms, it could be a useful complementary procedure for the diagnosis of breast anomalies and could herald a renaissance of this method. Compared with high-resolution ductal ultrasound, the investigators achieved better results with contrast-enhanced galactography using tomosynthesis and the generated synthetic digital 2D full-field mammograms, as confirmed by histopathological findings.