Diagnostic Accuracy of Ultrasound in the Detection of Malignant Focal Solid Breast Lesions Taking Biopsy as a Gold Standard

Background: Now a day's breast cancer is one of the most common causes of deaths and the most malignant condition among women. Objective: To determine diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound in detection of malignant focal solid breast lesions taking biopsy as a gold standard. Material and methods: This Cross-sectional analytical study was conducted at the department of radiology and pathology of Life Line Hospital. Duration of the study was 9 months after the aproval of synopsis. Ultrasound system (Toshiba Xario) with linear transducer, frequency ranging 7 to 14 MHZ. All 78 participants were scanned while observing international standards of American institute of ultrasound in medicine (AIUM) guidelines for breast sonography. Results: Total 78 females with solid breast lesions were included in this study, out of them 28 (35.90%) were found in right while 50(64.10%) in left side. The distribution of breast lesions in Upper outer quadrant, Lower outer quadrant, Upper inner quadrant, and Lower inner quadrant were 50 (64.10%), 45 (57.49%), 13 (16.67%), 16 (20.51%) and 4 (51.13%) respectively. Mean of the depth to width D/W ration in malignant was 0.78±0.098 (0.42-0.93), while in benign was 0.52±0.141(0.35-0.85). there was a significant difference between the D/W ratio of benign and malignant solid breast lesion. The specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound while taking histopathology as gold standard were 94.74%, 95.24%, 98.18%, 86.96%, and 94.87% respectively. Conclusion: Ultrasound can differentiate benign and malignant solid breast lesion to a great extent. With the application of this sonographic criteria in the cases of solid breast lesion before biopsy for histologic examination the number of unwanted biopsies will be reduced to a great extent.