Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, Vol 12, Issue 10 601-608, Copyright © 1993 by American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
Differentiation of breast tumors by ultrasonic tissue characterization
R. M. Golub, R. E. Parsons, B. Sigel, E. J. Feleppa, J. Justin, H. A. Zaren, M. Rorke, J. Sokil-Melgar and H. Kimitsuki
Department of Surgery, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19129.
The ability of ultrasonic tissue characterization to differentiate and
classify benign and malignant breast tissues in vivo in patients with
palpable breast masses and in vitro in excised breast tissue was evaluated.
One-hundred and twenty-four in vivo and 89 in vitro studies were performed
using a technique of UTC based on parameters from the power spectrum of
backscattered echoes. Sensitivities and specificities for diagnosing
carcinoma were 86 and 84% for in vivo studies and 94 and 92% for in vitro
studies. These UTC parameters provided threshold values for color-coding
breast lesion images. The results of this preliminary investigation suggest
that UTC provides a basis for assessing more accurately lesions suspected
of being malignant prior to biopsy and possibly for evaluating breast
lesions noninvasively.
