Discrimination of sonographically detected breast masses using frequency shift color Doppler imaging in combination with age and gray scale criteria.

Abstract

Frequency shift color Doppler imaging was assessed in conjunction with patient age and gray scale (GS) features for discriminating benign from malignant breast masses. Thirty‐eight women with sonographically detected masses scheduled for biopsy were evaluated using a 6‐ to 13‐MHz scan head, and the masses were delineated in ultrasonographic image volumes. Vascularity in and around each mass was quantified using speed‐weighted pixel density (SWD). Gray scale features were ranked visually on a linear scale. Combinations of indices were compared with histologic findings (18 benign and 20 malignant). Receiver operating characteristic analysis ranked performance in decreasing order from the SWD‐Age‐GS index, to SWD‐GS, SWD‐Age, Age‐GS, GS criteria, SWD, and Age. At 100% sensitivity, SWD‐Age‐GS, SWD‐GS, and SWD‐Age discriminated benign from malignant masses with specificities of 94%, 89%, and 72%, respectively. These results indicate significant improvement in ultrasonographic discrimination of sonographically detected breast masses by combining the vascularity measure SWD with age and GS criteria.