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Updated: Jan 30, 2026

Basic Research in Plasma Medicine - A Throughput Approach from Liquids to Cells
Published on: November 17, 2017
Evaluation of plasma cell mastitis with superb microvascular imaging
Yi-Cheng Zhu1, Yuan Zhang1, Shu-Hao Deng1
1Department of Ultrasound, Pudong New Area People's Hospital affiliated to Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, China.
Background:
Plasma cell mastitis (PCM), a common type of mastitis often mimics malignancy clinically and radiologically.
Objective:
The study was designed to explore the diagnostic value of superb microvascular imaging (SMI) in differentiating PCM from malignant breast lesions.
Methods:
A total of 95 breast lesions underwent conventional ultrasound (US) and SMI examination between May 2016 and April 2018. Vessels were detected in SMI in a quantitative manner. Blood flow parameters including systolic peak velocity (SPV), resistance index (RI), and pulsatility index (PI) were evaluated. We further assessed the diagnostic performances of US and US+SMI.
Results:
The majority of PCM were in regular shape and displayed no calcification compared with malignant breast lesions. Regarding blood flow parameters, PCM obtained significantly lower mean value of RI and PI compared with malignant lesions (P < 0.05). The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy rate of US+SMI (84.62%, 76.47%, 83.16%) was significantly higher than those of US (78.21%, 64.71%, 75.59%).
Conclusions:
The present study supports that SMI is a novel ultrasound technology in revealing micro-vessels in breast lesions. The combined modality of US+SMI presented a better diagnostic performance in making a distinction between PCM and malignant breast carcinomas.
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