Evaluation of diagnostic value of Doppler ultrasound in the diagnosis of malignant breast masses

Abstract

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in women, and it is on the rise in Iran. Therefore, an early-stage diagnosis of breast cancer is of critical importance. Because ultrasound is one of the available, inexpensive, and minimally invasive techniques for distinguishing malignant from benign masses, a comparison of conventional ultrasound, color Doppler, and spectral Doppler findings can be useful. The purpose of this study was to determine the diagnostic value of sonographic indices, specifically Doppler parameters, in identifying the nature of breast masses. This is a cross-sectional study, with diagnostic value analysis. Before undergoing a biopsy, 80 patients with breast masses underwent B-mode and Doppler breast ultrasound. The ultrasound findings were then compared to pathologic results to determine which groups were malignant or benign. The resulting data were analyzed using statistical tests and diagnostic values with SPSS 22 software. B-mode grey-scale ultrasound indices such as mass shape, mass margin, mass orientation, and posterior features, as well as Doppler indices such as vascularity, RI (Resistive Index), PI (Pulsatility Index), and PSV (Peak Systolic Velocity), were found to be statistically significant with pathological findings. Color Doppler revealed vascularity in 65% of benign and 84% of malignant masses. The diagnostic value results revealed that mass shape, mass margin, mass orientation, and posterior features all play a significant role in predicting lesion malignancy, with a sensitivity of 92%, 58%, 64%, 56%, and specificity of 59%, 66%, 82%, and 84%, respectively. The RI, PI, and PSV indices were significantly higher in malignant masses, and all of them had remarkable diagnostic values in predicting malignancy, with a (Area Under The Curve) AUC of 0.863, 0.882, 0.702, a sensitivity of 84% and 84%, 68%, and a specificity of 83%, 86%, and 62%, respectively, at the optimal cut-off points (0.65, 1.32, 12.40) obtained from the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curves.