Disparity mapping applied to sonography of the breast: technical note

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biophysics
• Diagnostic Ultrasound

Background:

• Distinguishing benign from malignant breast lesions is crucial for effective patient management.
• Traditional ultrasound methods can sometimes lack definitive characteristics for lesion classification.
• Sonoelastography offers a method to assess tissue stiffness, a property that often differs between benign and malignant masses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of a two-dimensional sonoelastographic technique, "disparity mapping," in differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions.
• To assess the ability of disparity mapping to identify characteristic tissue displacement patterns associated with different lesion types.

Main Methods:

• A two-dimensional sonoelastographic technique, disparity mapping, was applied during breast sonographic examinations in eight patients.
• Gray-scale sonographic scans were acquired with probe compression, approximately 1 second apart.
• The disparity mapping procedure calculated and visualized the apparent displacement of the speckle pattern within the ultrasound images.

Main Results:

• Disparity mapping findings were consistent with a firm lesion in two of the three confirmed malignant cancers.
• In all three benign fibroadenomas, the disparity mapping results were indistinguishable from normal breast tissue.
• One cyst showed findings indistinguishable from normal tissue, while another cyst with few internal echoes displayed no discernible disparity.

Conclusions:

• Disparity mapping demonstrates potential as a tool for characterizing breast lesions, showing distinct patterns in malignant compared to benign conditions.
• The technique's ability to visualize tissue displacement under compression may aid in improving the accuracy of breast lesion diagnosis.
• Further research with larger cohorts is warranted to fully establish the clinical utility of disparity mapping in breast imaging.