Ultrasonographic characteristics of breast lymphoma and comparison with mammography and MRI

Objective To retrospectively study the value of ultrasonography in diagnosing breast lymphoma and compare with mammography and MRI. Methods Imaging characteristics of 26 patients who were pathologically comfirmed as breast lymphoma were reviewed, including ultrasonography,mammography and MRI, and compare the diagnostic accuracy among the three. Results Twenty-four patients underwent ultrasonography and 32 lesions were found, with longest diameters averaged 30 mm.Tumors were mostly hypoechoic or very hypoechoic (81.3％), some were lobular (25.0％) or oval (21.9 ％ ) in shape, the margins were most frequently circumcribed (62. 5 ％ ), and a few tumors showed an echogenic boundary (18.8 ％ ). Color Doppler imaging showed hypervascularity in most tumors (59.4 ％ ).Ninteen patients undewent mammography, 15 solitary lesions were identified in 12 patients, asymmetric density in five,punctate calcification in one,and no abnormality in one. Eleven lesions were identified in MRI of 10 patients, 10 lesions showed hypointensity on T1-weighted images and hyperintensity on T2-weighted images, and heterogeneous enhancement after contrast. The diagnostic accuracy of ultrasonography,mammography and MRI was 83％, 52％ and 100％, respectively. Conclusions The sonograms of breast lymphoma have some distinct features, the combination of ultrasonography and MRI might benefit the diagnosis of breast lymphoma. Key words: Ultrasonography;  Breast neoplasms;  Lymphoma;  Mammography;  Magnetic resonance imaging