[Ultrasound-guided cytopuncture of impalpable solid breast lesions]

We performed 64 echo-guided fine needle (21 G) biopsies of solid unpalpable breast lesions in 58 patients. There was a correlation with cytohistological results in 34 cases (53%): 24 cancers (69% of the biopsied carcinomas) and 10 benign lesions (35% of the benign lesions biopsied). There were 4 false negatives, 7 false positives and biopsy did not contribute to diagnosis in 20 cases (31%). Diagnosis was made in all cases on the combined evidence from mammography, echography and cytology. These results emphasize the problems involved in cytodiagnosis: determining the localization of small lesions, nature of the biopsied lesions (role of existing fibrosis and low cell population in the non-diagnostic biopsies), reading the histological slide.