[Current status of ultrasound examination of the superficial organs (breast and thyroid)]

The ultrasound examination of superficial organs began with the application of the breast and thyroid. After the development of the high resolution real-time echography, this method has also been used for the examination of the salivary gland, parathyroid and lymph nodes, and it has become an indispensable diagnostic equipment, owing to low price, high diagnostic accuracy rate, short examination time and no invasiveness. Recently, colour Doppler equipment has developed and it has altered the reliability of ultrasound. [Breast]. The real-time method brought about the evaluation of compressibility and mobility by the dynamic test, and the interruption of the borderline of the mammary gland was added to the diagnostic criteria for breast cancer. Colour Doppler imaging will become a useful method to diagnose tumours, by evaluating the vascularity, blood flow volume or flow velocity. For nonpalpable tumours, ultrasonically guided aspiration cytology and biopsy were devised and they showed good results. [Thyroid]. Thyroid echography, together with aspiration cytology, became an integral part of the diagnostic method for thyroid cancer, and the necessity of the X-ray of the thyroid has decreased. The accuracy rate for papillary carcinoma recorded more than 80%. In the screening, the detection rate of carcinoma is now 1%. The differential diagnosis between carcinoma and adenoma, which both have a follicular pattern, is a problem yet to be solved. [Parathyroid]. Hyperplasia and adenoma of the parathyroid show hypoechoic and hypervascular area. In addition, the salivary gland and lymph nodes can also be evaluated with echography.