Comparative study of superb microvascular imaging and contrast-enhanced ultrasonographic microvascular imaging in diagnosis of breast tumor

Abstract

Objective To compare the diagnostic efficiency of superb microvascular imaging (SMI) and contrast-enhanced ultrasonographic microvascular imaging (MVI) for differentiating breast lesions. Methods One hundred and sixteen patients with 116 breast lesions were first examined by grayscale ultrasound. Then SMI and MVI were performed on all patients. Microvascular architectures of breast lesions were depicted by both methods. The lesions were evaluated based on their microvascular architectures. The diagnostic efficacy of both methods were compared. Results The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of SMI and MVI were 79.24%, 90.48%, 85.35% and 88.68%, 87.30%, 87.93%, respectively. The areas under the curve of SMI and MVI were 0.888 and 0.926. The diagnostic values of SMI and MVI were not statistically different (P=0.212). Conclusions SMI can detect tiny vessels and depict microvascular architecture of breast lesions as MVI do, which is beneficial for breast tumor differentiation. The diagnostic efficacy of SMI is almost the same as MVI. Key words: Ultrasonography; Breast neoplasms; Superb microvascular imaging; Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography