Usefulness of color Doppler and strain elastography adjunctive to B-mode ultrasonography in the diagnosis of non-mass abnormalities of the breast: results of the BC-07 multicenter study of 385 cases

• Published in: Journal of medical ultrasonics (2001) 2024-08
• Main Authors: Okuno, Toshitaka, Watanabe, Takanori, Yamaguchi, Takuhiro, Konno, Sachiyo, Takaki, Rie, Watanabe, Ryoji, Ban, Kanako, Hirokaga, Koichi, Tsuruoka, Masahiko, Morita, Takako
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1346-4523; 1613-2254; 1613-2254
• DOI: 10.1007/s10396-024-01485-1

The concept of non-mass abnormalities of the breast has been employed in Japan for approximately 20 years. Although B-mode findings are classified as non-mass abnormalities, the usefulness of adding color Doppler ultrasonography (US) and strain elastography to B-mode US is unclear. Therefore, we conducted a multicenter study (JABTS BC-07) to establish the diagnostic criteria for breast US, including color Doppler and elastography, for non-mass abnormalities of the breast and verify their diagnostic usefulness. We registered US images of non-mass abnormalities of the breast and their clinical and histopathological data from 13 institutions (202 malignant and 183 benign non-mass lesions). Furthermore, we evaluated the centralized image interpretation usefulness of the diagnostic criteria for B-mode and color Doppler US, as well as the sensitivity and specificity when color Doppler US and elastography were added to B-mode US. Echogenic foci in the mammary gland (odds ratio 3.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.92-6.19, p