[Rational radiologic diagnosis of breast carcinoma]

For a favourable prognosis breast cancer must be diagnosed as early as possible. Among available imaging modalities (mammography, sonography, DAS, thermography, CT, MR) only mammography has been shown to produce a significant reduction in mortality, but unfortunately only for women above 50 years of age. The technical requirements, and the standard techniques and the appearance of benign and malignant breast tissues are described. The routine use of ultrasound in the evaluation of palpable masses remains controversial. Ultrasound technology is incapable of detecting early-stage cancers reliably. By "using dynamic MRM", i.e., repetitive imaging of the same slice before and at short time intervals after the injection of a contrast medium, high sensitivity and specificity is achieved in detecting breast cancer of different histologies. MR-mammography should be used in all cases where there is a discrepancy among radiographic, sonographic or clinical findings.