Ultrasound in the evaluation of solid breast masses

Ultrasound image characteristics and radiographic features of 31 benign and 41 malignant breast masses were cross-tabulated and analyzed to determine the ultrasound image characteristics most useful for diagnosis and the frequency with which some imaging features occurred. The most common malignant mass (the ductal carcinoma) exhibited a jagged wall (88%), homogeneous internal echoes (12%), nonhomogeneous internal echoes (70%), internal echoes not discernible due to attenuation effects (18%), and attenuation shadowing (97%). In contrast, the fibroadenoma (the most common benign mass in this study), exhibited smooth walls (94%), homogeneous internal echoes (89%), and no demonstrable posterior shadowing (67%).