Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, Vol 18, Issue 2 89-93, Copyright © 1999 by American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
Color Doppler sonography of focal lesions of the skin and subcutaneous tissue
F. Giovagnorio, C. Andreoli and M. L. De Cicco
Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Patologia, Universita La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
We evaluated with color Doppler sonography 71 visible and palpable nodules
of the skin and subcutaneous tissue from 51 patients. The nodules were
classified as avascular (type I), hypovascular with a single vascular pole
(type II), hypervascular with multiple peripheral poles (type III), and
hypervascular with internal vessels (type IV). Of the 32 malignant nodules,
9% showed a type I pattern, 50% had a type III pattern, and 41% had a type
IV pattern; of the 39 benign nodules, 86% showed a type I pattern and 14%
had a type II pattern. The sensitivity and specificity of hypervascularity
in malignant lesions were 90% and 100%, respectively, whereas the
sensitivity and specificity of hypovascularity in benign lesions were 100%
and 90%, respectively. The authors conclude that color Doppler sonography
is able to increase the specificity of ultrasonography in the evaluation of
nodular lesions of the skin.
