Combined B-mode and color Doppler sonography of breast tumours

Objective: Color-coded Doppler sonography, a method to study tumour vascula rization, may complement and increase the diagnostic accuracy of B-mode son ography for the evaluation of breast tumours. An earlier retrospective mult ivariate analysis identified tumour delineation, posterior acoustic attenua tion, vascularization, pulsatility index, and peak systolic velocity as ind ependent predictive factors for an algorithm. In the present study we appli ed this algorithm prospectively in a series of 128 breast tumours of unknow n histology. Methods: A series of 128 patients with palpable breast rumours underwent co nventional and colour-coded Doppler sonography before surgery. A prediction was made using the diagnostic algorithm. The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of the modalities were calculated in the light of the h istology findings. Results: Ninety-four tumours were malignant and 34 were benign. Additional use of colour-coded Doppler sonography increased the diagnostic accuracy of B-mode sonography from 79 % to 87 % (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Colour-coded Doppler sonography improves the diagnostic accurac y of B-mode sonography in the assessment of breast rumours and is a useful part of a diagnostic algorithm.