[Breast sonography with the new water bath scanning technics]

At 1188 patients we investigated the value of sonography of the breast in the detection of malignancies. We used 2 automatic multitransducer water-bath scanners, at first the 3 MH Octoson, then System 1, a dedicated 4 MH water-bath breast scanner which allows for compound and simple scans in any scanning plane. The sensitivity for detection of 63 malignancies was 87%. Other pathologies were 18 fibroadenomas, 160 cysts, 6 abscesses, 2 fatty necroses, 2 papillomas, 9 prostheses, one of them broken. The difficulties associated with differential diagnosis in breast sonography are discussed in detail.