Breast vibro-acoustography: initial experience in benign lesions

BMC Medical Imaging

Research Article

Leman Gunbery Karaberkmez¹  Mostafa Fatemi²  Mohammad Mehrmohammadi²  Azra Alizad³  Dana H Whaley⁴  Katrina N Glazebrook⁴  Rickey E Carter⁵  Karthik Ghosh⁶ 

[1] Bolu IBD Hospital, Radiology, Sanayi Sitesi 32. Blok Demirciler Ve Nalburcular Odasi Hiz. Binasi Alti, No:1, 14100, Bolu, Turkey;Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, 200 First Street SW, 55905, Rochester, MN, USA;Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, 200 First Street SW, 55905, Rochester, MN, USA;Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, 200 First Street SW, 55905, Rochester, MN, USA;Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, 200 First Street SW, 55905, Rochester, MN, USA;Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Department of Health Sciences Research Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, 200 First Street SW, 55905, Rochester, MN, USA;Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, 200 First Street SW, 55905, Rochester, MN, USA;

关键词: Breast neoplasms;    Breast ultrasonography;    Mammography;    Vibro-acoustography;    Benign breast lesion;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12880-014-0040-1

 received in 2014-09-04, accepted in 2014-12-10,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundVibro-acoustography (VA) is a newly developed imaging technology that is based on low-frequency vibrations induced in the object by the radiation force of ultrasound. VA is sensitive to the dynamic characteristics of tissue. Here, we evaluate the performance of VA in identifying benign lesions and compare the results to those of mammography.MethodsAn integrated mammography-VA system designed for in vivo breast imaging was tested on a group of female volunteers, age ≥ 18 years, with suspected breast lesions based on clinical examination. A set of VA scans was acquired after each corresponding mammography. Most lesions were classified as benign based on their histological results. However, in 4 cases, initial diagnosis based on clinical imaging determined that the lesions were cysts. These cysts were aspirated with needle aspiration and disappeared completely under direct ultrasound visualization. Therefore, no biopsies were performed on these cases and lesions were classified as benign based on clinical findings per clinical standards. To define the VA characteristics of benign breast masses, we adopted the features that are normally attributed to such masses in mammography. In a blinded assessment, three radiologists evaluated the VA images independently. The diagnostic accuracy of VA for detection of benign lesions was assessed by comparing the reviewers’ evaluations with clinical data.ResultsOut of a total 29 benign lesions in the group, the reviewers were able to locate all lesions on VA images and mammography, 100% with (95% confidence interval (CI): 88% to 100%). Two reviewers were also able to correctly classify 83% (95% CI: 65% to 92%), and the third reviewer 86% (95% CI: 65% to 95%) of lesions, as benign on VA images and 86% (95% CI: 69% to 95%) on mammography.ConclusionsThe results suggest that the mammographic characteristics of benign lesion may also be used to identify such lesions in VA. Furthermore, the results show the ability of VA to detect benign breast abnormalities with a performance comparable to mammography. Therefore, the VA technology has the potential to be utilized as a complementary tool for breast imaging applications. Additional studies are needed to compare the capabilities of VA and traditional ultrasound imaging.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Alizad et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2014