Real-time breast sonography: application in 300 consecutive patients.

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Medical Imaging
• Oncology

Background:

• Mammography is standard for breast cancer screening.
• Sonography's role as a primary screening tool is limited.
• Sonography excels as an adjunct to mammography for abnormal findings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the utility of real-time hand-held breast sonography.
• To demonstrate sonographic visualization of normal and abnormal breast anatomy.
• To emphasize the sonographic diagnosis of simple cysts.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a real-time 10-MHz hand-held ultrasound unit.
• Examined both normal and pathological breast anatomy.
• Focused on identifying characteristics of simple cysts.

Main Results:

• Sonography reliably diagnoses simple cysts, a common cause of breast masses.
• Differentiation between benign and malignant solid masses remains challenging with sonography.
• Posterior enhancement was observed in most simple cysts (78/80), but not consistently.

Conclusions:

• Real-time breast sonography is a helpful adjunct to mammography for evaluating abnormal breasts.
• Sonography is effective for diagnosing simple cysts.
• Further advancements are needed for sonography to reliably differentiate solid breast masses.