BREAST-TUMORS - COMPUTER-ASSISTED QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT WITH COLOR DOPPLER US

PURPOSE: To compare quantified measurements with color Doppler ultraso nography (US) with those obtained with conventional duplex US in the d ifferential diagnosis of suspect lesions in the breast. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A computer-assisted protocol was used to calculate the color pixel density (CPD) and the mean color value (MCV) in US images of bre ast lesions. These results were compared with conventional results in the examination of 25 patients (aged 29-78 years) with carcinomas and 32 patients (aged 23-73 years) with benign lesions of the breast. RESU LTS: The sensitivity of maximum flow velocity in helping identify carc inomas was 60% and the specificity was 70%. In color Doppler US, the s ensitivity for MCV in helping identify carcinomas was 92% and the spec ificity was 78%; for CPD the sensitivity was 64% and the specificity w as 91%. Combining MCV and CPD did not improve differentiation. CONCLUS ION: Computer-assisted image analysis may be superior to conventional duplex US in helping differentiate between carcinomas and benign lesio ns.