Electrical impedance measurement of the breast: effect of hormonal changesassociated with the menstrual cycle

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of hormonal factors on electrical impedance measurement with a new device TS2000, which is a n ew method in diagnosis of breast disease. I Twenty-one healthy pre-menopaus al women volunteers (aged 24-39 years) were examined with the TS2000 once/w eek for two menstrual cycles. On average, at least one spot was present in 47 % of images of; women not taking oral contraceptives and in 44 % of wome n taking oral contraceptives (OC). The number of spots varied over the mens trual cycle and had a maximum in week 3 and week 5. We found that after 1 w eek only 15% of spots were present and no spots I persisted for three conse cutive weeks. These data, if further supported by observations on other pop ulations of women, show that false-positive results are common in pre-menop ausal women; however, these false-positive spots do not persist for long pe riods of time. This information may provide a basis for discrimination betw een true-positive and false-positive spots on the TS2000 image, since the l atter would be expected to disappear on short-term follow up.