Adeptness of digital mammography set against ultrasound in early detection of malignant breast masses with correlation to biopsy results

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second most common cause of death from cancer in women. The aim of this study is to determine which is a more accurate imaging test, mammography, or ultrasound for the diagnosis of small malignant breast masses based on the women’s age and breast density. The 30 patients were examined by clinical examination, screening mammography and ultrasound. A total of 30 breast lesions were examined by histopathology analyses. Sensitivity varied significantly with age and breast density. Of the 30 women who had both tests, ultrasound had a higher sensitivity than mammography in women younger than 45 years, whereas mammography had a higher sensitivity than ultrasound in women older than 50 years. The sensitivity according to age was 60.0% for mammography and 36.4% for an ultrasound. Comparing the sensitivity of mammography and ultrasound according to the breast density indicates that mammographic sensitivity was 87.5% among women with predominantly fatty breasts, but 25.0% in women with heterogeneously dense breasts, with the increase of fibro glandular density the level of sensitivity with mammography decreases, while ultra-sonographic sensitivity was 12.5% among women with predominantly fatty breast and 60.0% for heterogeneous dense breasts. The data indicate that sensitivity of ultrasound was statistically significantly greater than mammography in patients with breast symptoms for the detection of malignant breast masses particularly in dense breast and in young women.

Keywords: Breast masses, mammography, breast ultrasound, breast biopsy.

This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0