COLOR DOPPLER AND DUPLEX FLOW-ANALYSIS FOR CLASSIFICATION OF BREAST-LESIONS

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the differences of blood sup ply in benign and malignant breast tumors by color Doppler flow measur ements. The study included 471 patients, 133 with carcinomas, 325 with benign breast lesions, and 13 with mastitis. An ATL UM9/HDI was used with an electronic 10-MHz linear array broadband transducer. The follo wing flow data were analyzed: Presence of vascularity; number of tumor arteries; the mean, minimum, maximum RI index, and AB ratio; the mean , minimum, and maximum peak systolic flow velocity and the sum of all peak systolic flow velocities in each tumor. In all cancers and in mos t benign pathologies vascularity was found. Highly significant differe nces between benign and malignant were found for all quantitative flow data such as number of tumor arteries and blood flow velocity (P < 0. 0001). Flow profiles analyzed by RI index and AB ratio showed a trend for increased flow resistance in malignancies. However, due to the wid e overlap between benign and malignant, indices did not allow a suffic ient differentiation. The study showed that standardization of the Dop pler examination technique and equipment parameters is essential for v ascularity assessment of tumors. (C) 1997 Academic Press.