The Diagnostic Value of Micropure Imaging in Breast Suspicious Microcalcificaion.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of Micropure Imaging (MI) in breast lesions differentiation by comparison with B-mode ultrasonography (B-US) and Doppler ultrasonography (DU).


METHODS
A total of 135 consecutive patients (all females) with 135 suspicious lesions were examined and skin marked by MI before mammotome biopsies. All patients (age range, 20-86 years; mean age, 42.5 ± 15.6 years) were the first onset, not in the pregnancy or lactation and had no history of radiation or chemotherapy. The maximum diameter of lesions ranged from 0.2 to 9.6 cm (average 1.98 ± 1.3 cm). Their final diagnoses were obtained by histologic examination. The study protocol was approved by the hospital review board; each patient gave written informed consent.


RESULTS
One hundred thirty-five breast lesions were classified into 90 nonmalignant and 45 malignant types. To 86 breast lesions with microcalcification, MI showed more microcalcification and coincided better with pathology results than B-US did (P < .05). The specificity of MI was higher than that of B-US and DU; the sensitivity of DU was significantly higher than that of B-US and MI (P < .001). By combining B-US, DU, and MI, the detection accuracy was 86.7%. Receiver-operator characteristic curves showed the area under the curve of B-US, DU, and MI was 0.865, 0.934, and 0.923(P = .000), respectively. Moreover, the interobserver agreements of MI were the highest, 0.922 (observer 1 vs. observer 2), 0.866 (observer 1 vs. observer 3), and 0.916 (observer 2 vs. observer 3).


CONCLUSIONS
MI as an adjunct ultrasound modality holds some promise in locating and differentiating breast lesions.
Department of Ultrasonography, The First Hospital of Changsha, Changsha, Hunan, PR China.
Rong
R
Tan
Department of Ultrasonography, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Xiangya Road 141, Changsha, Hunan, 410008, PR China. Electronic address: fuyujie30@163.com.
Ying
Y
Xiao
Department of Ultrasonography, The First Hospital of Changsha, Changsha, Hunan, PR China.
Qi
Q
Tang
Department of Ultrasonography, The First Hospital of Changsha, Changsha, Hunan, PR China.
Ying
Y
Zhang
Department of Pathology, The First Hospital of Changsha, Changsha, Hunan, PR China.
Hui
H
Chen
Department of Breast Surgery, the First Hospital of Changsha, Changsha, Hunan, PR China.
Xiancheng
X
Fan
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D002114:Calcinosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018608:Ultrasonography, Doppler; D055815:Young Adult
B-US; DU; MI; microcalcification