The value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the diagnosis of BI-RADS-US 4a lesions less than 2 cm in diameter.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor in women. Early diagnosis of benign and malignant breast tumors is of great significance. OBJECTIVE: To retrospectively analyze the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) in the diagnosis of Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) 4a breast lesions less than 2 cm in diameter. METHODS: CEUS was performed for 143 breast masses less than 2 cm in diameter that were diagnosed as BI-RADS 4a by ultrasound and reclassified. Considering pathological diagnosis as the gold standard, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of reclassified lesions after CEUS for the diagnosis of benign and malignant masses were analyzed. RESULTS: BI-RADS 4a breast masses with a diameter less than 2 cm (n = 143) were confirmed by pathology; 103 and 40 were classified as benign and malignant, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of CEUS for the diagnosis were 90%, 86%, 72%, and 95%, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of CEUS for the diagnosis of benign and malignant tumors after CEUS was 0.904. CONCLUSION: CEUS can help to improve the diagnostic accuracy of BI-RADS 4a masses with a diameter less than 2 cm.

Value of contrast-enhanced malignancy imaging features in secondary grade diagnosis of BI-RADS-US type 4 breast lesions.

PURPOSE: To explore the value of contrast-enhanced malignancy imaging features in secondary grade diagnosis of Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System for Ultrasonography (BI-RADS-US) type 4 breast lesions. METHODS: After initial diagnosis by ultrasound, 124 BI-RADS-US type 4 patients with 130 lesions were examined by contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and were classified again before surgery according to five contrast-enhanced malignancy imaging features: inhomogeneous enhancement, peripheral ring-like enhancement, expansive enhancement, internal filling defects, and surrounding radioactive convergence. Lesions with no contrast-enhanced features of malignancy were categorized as type 3; lesions with one, two, or three features of malignancy were categorized as type 4A, 4B, or 4C, respectively; and lesions with four or more indices of malignancy were categorized as type 5. The value of contrasted imaging features of malignancy in diagnosing BI-RADS-US type 4 breast lesions was analyzed. RESULTS: The accuracy of CEUS diagnosis for type 3 lesions was 93.8% (46/49), 76.9% (10/13) for type 4A, 71.4% (5/7) for type 4B, 75.0% (9/12) for type 4C, and 93.8% (46/49) for type 5 lesions. The sensitivity of CEUS in diagnosing malignant lesions was 90.4%, specificity was 83.6%, and accuracy was 86.9%. CEUS decreased the benign lesion biopsy ratio to 68.5% (46/67) and increased the diagnosis ratio of malignant lesions to 73.0% (46/63). CONCLUSIONS: CEUS can further optimize the classification of BI-RADS-US type 4 breast lesions and may provide a better reference basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment of those breast lesions.

Incorporation of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the differential diagnosis for breast lesions with inconsistent results on mammography and conventional ultrasound.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the efficacy of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in re-evaluating masses with inconsistent Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) on mammography (MG) and conventional ultrasound (US). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 637 breast lesions were evaluated with MG, US, and CEUS within 6 months and assessed as BI-RADS MG and US. CEUS was used as an additional screening to rerate BI-RADS US according to a five-point system. Lesions were divided into consistent or inconsistent group on the basis of BI-RADS MG and US assessment. The performance of MG, US, and CEUS in the overall and inconsistent group as well as the clinicopathological differences between consistent and inconsistent group were compared using Z test, Mann-Whitney U test, and t-test. RESULTS: The respective AUCs of MG and US were 0.742, 0.843 for overall group and 0.412, 0.789 for inconsistent group. The corresponding values of rerated CEUS BI-RADS were 0.958 and 0.950, which were significantly prior to those of MG and US (p < 0.001). Younger age, negative lymph node status, and dense breast were significantly associated with inconsistent group. CONCLUSION: Incorporation of CEUS to re-evaluate lesions can improve the diagnostic efficacy comparing to MG or US alone especially when disagreement occurred.

Role of BI-RADS Ultrasound Subcategories 4A to 4C in Predicting Breast Cancer.

BACKGROUND: The Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) ultrasound (US) categorization revised in 2013 by the American College of Radiology resulted in unquestionable standardization of reports and confirmed category 3 and 5 as benign and malignant lesions, respectively. In contrast, suspected images (category 4) have subcategorization criteria, although theses have been detailed difficult to apply. The aim of the present study was to determine the role of the US 4A to 4C BI-RADS subcategories in predicting malignancy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional study of diagnostic tests to estimate the performance of the US BI-RADS categorization to clearly differentiate benign from malignant lesions. A total of 975 US examinations performed at the Hospital Femina, Grupo Hospitalar Conceição teaching hospitals from January 2012 through March 2015 were included in the present study. The US BI-RADS lexicon was used to classify the examination findings. Suspicious lesions underwent core needle biopsy, and the US and histology reports were compared to determine the performance using receiver operating characteristic curves. RESULTS: Overall, the BI-RADS US categorization showed good discriminating accuracy with a receiver operating characteristic curve of 91% (95% confidence interval [CI], 88%-93%). However, BI-RADS subcategory 4b had a positive predictive value of 25% (95% CI, 20%-31%) and subcategory 4A had a positive predictive value of only 6% (95% CI, 3.5%-9.8%). CONCLUSION: Our results have shown that US BI-RADS subcategories 4A and 4B are clearly unfit for use in screening tests, because they cannot rule out the need for biopsy. Therefore, management will not be improved by subcategorizing category 4, because all suspicious lesions will still require definite biopsy.

The application value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the BI-RADS-US 4 breast lesions / 中华超声影像学杂志

Objective To assess the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in differential diagnosis of BI-RADS-US 4 breast lesions.Methods A total of 123 lesions underwent CEUS.The CEUS features of lesions were categorized into 5 malignant or benign indexes respectively,lesions displaying any two of the five features were diagnosed as malignant or benign.The diagnostic effect of CEUS for BI-RADS-US 4 lesion was analyzed according to the pathological results as the gold standard.Results CEUS of the 123 BI-RADS-US 4 breast lesions indicated that 75 lesions were malignant while 48 were benign.Pathological results confirmed that there were 72 malignant lesions and 51 benign.The proportions of malignant lesions in 4A category,4B category and 4C category were 16.2 ％,58.5 ％ and 93.3 ％ respectively.The accuracy,sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value,and negative and positive predictive value of CEUS for the diagnosis of BI-RADS-US 4 lesions were calculated as 92.7％,95.8％,88.2％,92.0％ and 93.7 ％ respectively.Lesions showing false positive in CEUS mainly needed surgical treatment,such as fibroma with active growth mesen-chyme,intraductal papilloma and granulomatous mastitts.Conclusions Surgical treatment rather than aspiration biopsy are suggested for those diagnosed being malignant in CEUS of the BI-RADS-US-4 lesions,as they can be treated as BI-RADS5 lesions.Short-term visit or aspiration biopsy are suggested for BI-RADS-US-4 lesions diagnosed being benign in CEUS.