Sonographic Evaluation of Spectrum of Breast Diseases-A Study in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Southern Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Background:Breast carcinoma has become one of the leading causes of death among women. Early clinical detection of breast carcinoma through screening has led to the detection of the tumor at a relatively earlier clinical stage, which definitely reduced the mortality. Breast ultrasonography (US) has gained widespread acceptance as a diagnostic tool for the evaluation of human breast disease and the ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) as the preferred method of tissue sampling. The present study aims to observe the diagnostic accuracy of US, in the assessment of breast masses compared to pathologic findings. Methods: This analytical, retrospective study was conducted on 246 patients that were referred for US scan in a tertiary care hospital of southern Tamilnadu, between January to December 2017. 110 breast masses from 246 patients were evaluated with US & US guided FNAB. BI-RADS US criteria combined with pathological findings were correlated in differentiation between benign and malignant masses. Sensitivity, Specificity & Accuracy were derived for US. Results:In our study the Sensitivity, Specificity, Positive predictive value (PPV) & Negative predictive value (NPV) of US, in detecting malignant breast nodule, was found to be 94%, 97.67%, 98.43% and 91.30% respectively. The overall accuracy of US in detection of benign & malignant breast nodule was found to be 95.45%. Conclusions: BI-RADS criteria combined with US guided FNAB, well correlated with pathological findings, increases the rate of detection of Breast cancer and reduces the number of unnecessary surgical & radiological procedures and the overall cost of medical care.