The importance of ultrasound diagnosis in breast diseases

  Breast imaging plays a major role in the clinical evaluation of breast disease. The most commonly used imaging techniques worldwide are ultrasound and X-ray, which have a sensitivity of 45-90%, depending on the patient’s age and breast density. Ultrasound has a sensitivity of 80-90%. X-rays are preferred for women >35 years of age and ultrasound is preferred for women <35 years of age. The sensitivity of ultrasound is less affected by age compared to x-ray and can detect some breast cancers that are missed on x-ray. For the diagnosis of non-touch breast disease, ultrasound will increase the detection rate of early breast cancer, thus improving the overall survival rate of breast cancer.  Ultrasound diagnosis requires grading of each lesion by an experienced imaging physician. Breast ultrasound is used to classify and diagnose breast cancer by observing the location, borders, size, shape, presence or absence of envelope, internal echogenicity, presence or absence of blood flow, presence or absence of calcification and liquefaction, and the relationship between the mass and the pectoralis major muscle and subcutaneous fat. The diagnosis was made by mammographic observation of the mass (location, size, morphology, margin and density), calcification (nature and distribution) and structural disorder, related signs and description of special cases. The classification criteria: grade 1 is normal presentation; grade 2 is benign lesion; grade 3 is atypical or junctional lesion, but may be benign; grade 4 is suspicious malignancy; grade 5 is consistent with malignant changes.  As an assessment system for imaging, the main application is the BreastImagingReportingandDataSystem(BI-RADS) proposed by the American College of Radiology and the EuropeanSocietyofMastology grading system. The main difference between the two systems is the connotation of grade 3. Grade 3 of BI-RADS is basically a benign lesion, while the meaning of the European assessment system can be translated as ? nature to be determined? which is more in line with Chinese diagnostic imaging and clinical application habits, therefore, our hospital adopted the European grading system for grading. With the development of ultrasound imaging technology, more and more non-touch breast lesions in clinical examination are detected by ultrasound. A study showed that the sensitivity of ultrasound in the diagnosis of non-touch breast diseases reached 94.1%, which is much higher than that of mammography (38.2%), and the specificity between them did not change significantly, and the accuracy of ultrasound diagnosis was 94.9%, which is much higher than that of mammography (79.7%). The sensitivity of the X-ray test depends on the age of the patient and the density of the breast, but this is not the main factor affecting the sensitivity.  In conclusion, ultrasound is a good adjunct or even the leading diagnostic tool in the imaging of non-palpable breast disease.