Gray scale contrast-enhanced ultrasound for differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions

Objective To evaluate the use of gray scale contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant breast lesions. Methods Sixty-two breast lesions in 61 patients were assessed by gray scale contrast-enhanced ultrasound after injection of the contrast agent SonoVue. Contrast-enhancement patterns of breast lesions were analyzed. Results Histopathologic examination revealed that 32 lesions were malignant and 30 were benign. On contrast-enhanced ultrasound,focal enhancement defects were largely associated with malignant tumors (P=0.002) and had a sensitivity of 71.9%(23/32),specificity of 66.7%(20/30) and accuracy of 69.4%(43/62). Similarly,the frequency of heterogeneous enhancement was higher in malignant lesions than that in benign lesions (P=0.010) and the sensitivity for heterogeneous enhancement was 78.1% (25/32),specificity was 53.3% (16/30),and accuracy was 66.1% (41/62). Conclusions Gray scale contrast-enhanced ultrasound may be a useful method for differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions.