Combining ultrasonography and mammography to improve diagnostic accuracy of plasma cell mastitis

To evaluate the diagnostic value of ultrasonography and mammography for plasma cell mastitis.

The ultrasonographic and mammographic images of 111 women with histopathologically confirmed plasma cell mastitis were retrospectively analyzed. The diagnostic accuracy of the two imaging methods was compared.

Ultrasonography identified 91 out of 111 (82.0%) patients with plasma cell mastitis, while the other twenty (18.0%) patients were misdiagnosed. Mammography identified 83 (74.8%) out of 111 patients with plasma cell mastitis. Nineteen (17.1%) patients were misdiagnosed. There was no significant difference between the diagnostic accuracy of using two imaging tests (P = 0.127). Mammography clouds identified 11 out of 20 patients who were not diagnosed by ultrasonography. Meanwhile, 19 of the 28 cases misdiagnosed with mammography were correctly identified by ultrasonography. Overall, 91.9% (102/111) of the patients were identified by the combination of ultrasonography and mammography, which yielded statistically significant higher accuracy than using each single test only (P < 0.05).

In diagnosis of plasma cell mastitis, high-frequency ultrasonography and mammography should be combined to improve the diagnostic accuracy.