Twinkling artifact in differential diagnosis of mammary calcinates

Abstract

Research goal: evaluation of the possibility of using an ultrasound twinkling artifact in the detection of breast calcifications as a diagnostic criterion for breast cancer.Material and methods. A targeted ultrasound study using color Doppler mapping was performed to determine the presence of a twinkling artifact in 112 patients who had calcifications detected during X-ray mammography.Results. According to the ultrasound examination, the twinkling artifact was registered only in 10 of the 112 women examined. A pronounced twinkling artifact was registered in 3 patients, the calcifications were single, mainly lobular, with a size of more than 1 mm. In 5 cases, the flicker artifact was determined to be of moderate severity, and the distribution pattern was also dominated by single ones, more than 1 mm. Two patients with grouped calcinates had a weakly expressed twinkling artifact, their dimensions were also more than 1 mm.Conclusion. The data obtained indicate that the Doppler twinkling artifact in the mammary glands occurs only in macrocalcinates (larger than 1 mm) and, mainly, single ones. Modern ultrasound devices do not allow registering a twinkling artifact in calcinates smaller than 1 mm, which indicates that it is impossible to use Doppler color coding to detect microcalcinates as a predictor of breast cancer.