The validity of Sonography in distinguishing benign solid breast mass from malignant

Abstract

Objective:To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), and positive predictive value (PPV)of ultrasonography (US) in distinguish benign solid breast mass from malignant one.
Patients and methods: Between April 2009 and October 2012 , 243 female patients with breast lesions diagnosed by their managing surgeons, were sonographically assessed .Those who had solid lesions were selected for a prospective study through comparison with the histopathological finding of the open biopsies taken from the lesions . US features that most reliably characterize masses as benign or malignant had been strictly applied for diagnosing these cases. Sonographic classifications were compared with histopathological reports of the biopsies . The sensitivity, specificity, and negative and positive predictive values of the sonography were calculated.
Results:Sonographically ,108(44%) cases were classified as benign and 135(56%) were malignant . 12 (11%) lesions classified as benign sonographically, were found to be malignant histopathologically. 33 (24%) lesion classified as malignant were found to be benign histopathologically . Thus, the classification scheme had a negative predictive value of 89% and positive predictive value 75%.
Conclusion: Sonography could help in distinguish benign solid mass and can be follow up .