[Color Doppler ultrasonography of local recurrent breast cancer]

Local lesions occurring after conservative surgery for breast neoplasms require diagnostic means capable of detecting and assessing the recurrence of such cancers. In the present color-coded Doppler was used in 20 women who had under gone conservative surgery (mean 4 years before) to screen all suspect lesions. Among the 14 malignant lesions assessed histologically, one or more arterial vessels were detected inside or beside the lesion in 13. Among the 6 benign lesions, only of one arterial vessel was detected, in all cases far from the lesion (12.5 to 3.3 mm). No significant difference was observed for systolic velocities and resistance index. These results indicate high accuracy of color coded Doppler examination associated with echotomography and mammography for positive diagnosis of recurrent lesions in post-conservative follow-up of breast cancer.