title: Proposal of a novel method for observing the breast by high-resolution ultrasound imaging: understanding the normal breast structure and its application in an observational method for detecting deviations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  With the recent advances in modalities for diagnostic imaging of the breast, it is now essential to detect isoechoic masses and small nonmass lesions, to which little attention has so far been paid using ultrasound (US) of the breast. It will be possible with the observation method to understand normal breast structural images and anatomy. We elucidated the detailed histological architecture of the normal breast, information indispensable for diagnostic US of the breast.
  
  
  METHODS
  Verification of the above hypotheses was carried out using the breasts of 11 patients who underwent total mastectomy at our clinic.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Isoechoic structures with fat are lobules, all ducts, and surrounding stroma that support the ducts; intervening hyperechoic areas are edematous stroma and fat-containing stroma that support the breast. By taking an isoechoic structure that reflects the course of the ducts as the basic structure for observation, the boundary between the lobes can be inferred.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Detection of deviations from the normal structure using the method for interpreting three-dimensional ultrasound images of mammary lobes is a radical new approach for diagnosing breast cancer. This technique is very simple and amenable to standardization once one understands the underlying theory. Furthermore, it is useful as a screening method as well as for easy detection of faint minute lesions that can only be detected by magnetic resonance imaging or second-look targeted US.
authors: The Cancer Institute Hospital of the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, 3-8-31 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo, 135-8550, Japan. izuiso@mail2.netwave.or.jp
authors: Ayumi
authors: A
authors: Izumori
authors: Rie
authors: R
authors: Horii
authors: Futoshi
authors: F
authors: Akiyama
authors: Takuji
authors: T
authors: Iwase
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D042361:Mammary Glands, Human / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000166:cytology; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D016217:Ultrasonography, Mammary / Q000379:methods*