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Preliminary experience with power Doppler imaging of solid breast masses
R L Birdwell1, D M Ikeda, S S Jeffrey
1Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA 94305-5105, USA.
Objective:
The purpose of our study was to assess the potential of power Doppler imaging (PDI) to differentiate benign from malignant solid breast masses.
Materials And Methods:
Sixty-nine biopsy-proven solid breast masses were evaluated with PDI using 7- to 10-MHz transducers optimized for low-volume flow sensitivity. The extent of flow on PDI was estimated as a percentage of the lesion area on multiple longitudinal and transverse static sonographic images. Flow was categorized as avascular; less than 10%; 10-25%; 25.1-50%; and greater than 50%.
Results:
Of the 69 lesions evaluated, 33 were malignant and 36 were benign. Of the avascular lesions, nine were malignant and eight were benign. Significant overlap was seen in the vascularity of the other 52 lesions: both malignant and benign lesions revealed a similar range of vascular patterns.
Conclusion:
Preliminary experience with PDI suggests that both malignant and benign lesions can be avascular and that the presence of color within a solid breast mass is a nonspecific finding. Assessing the extent of vascularity with PDI appears to be of limited value in the diagnostic evaluation of solid breast masses.