NEW PERSPECTIVES WITH COLOR-ULTRASOUND IN MAMMARY-DIAGNOSIS

in recent years, ultrasound has become established as part of the diag nostic evaluation of breast tumours. Not replacing, but complementing mammography, ultrasonic investigations increasingly represent a sensit ive means of early diagnosis. Thermography, on the other hand, has pro ved of relatively little value and doesn't play a significant role tod ay. Lately, Colour Doppler sonography has been used for differentiatin g tumour-associated blood supply patterns - however, sensitivity and s pecificity were not as high as initially expected. Colour spectrum ana lysis of local findings in comparison to the remaining glandular tissu e, however, seems to be a promising method in the differentiation of u ltrasound findings of uncertain tumour status. A fibroadenoma shows no significantly different colour density as compared to surrounding tis sue. In carcinoma, on the other hand, one regularly finds a hyperinten sive zone with sharp margins. In 70 patients, who had breast tumours, we attempted the differentiation of benign and malignant findings with the help of colour spectrum analysis. Postoperatively, these results were validated by histology. With the exception of one mesenchymal tum our, the Doppler diagnosis was identical to the histopathological find ings.