Breast ultrasound is the most important and reliable diagnostic method in adjunct to mammography in the diagnosis of breast disease [1,2] (Fig. 1). In 2003 The American College of Radiology has been developed a lexicon of sonographic descriptors of breast masses to standardize terms for lesion characterization and reporting (Ultrasound Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System - BI-RADS) [3]. The sonographic BI-RADS lexicon includes sonographic descriptors for shape, orientation, margins, lesion boundary, echo pattern, posterior acoustic features, and surrounding tissue alterations. On the basis of...

We performed a retrospective analysis in 100 consecutive women with invasive breast cancer who underwent US guided core needle biopsy and subsequent surgery in the breast diagnostic centre of Brotzu Hospital (Cagliari, Italy). Only the patients with definitive histological diagnosis obtained after surgical treatment were included. DCIS cases were excluded. In patients with multiple breast masses, only the largest lesion was considered. The ultrasound examination was performed with a Siemens Antares unit (Siemens Medical Solutions, Sweden) using a high-resolution (10- to 13-MHz) linear array transducer....

Mean age of patients at diagnosis was 56.0 years (range:36-85 years, Standard Deviation: 13.0 years) Mean size of target lesion was 21.0 mm (range: 4-80 mm, SD: 14.0 mm). 78 patients had invasive ductal carcinoma, 16 patients had invasive lobular carcinoma, 2 patients had medullary carcinomas, 2 patient had mucinous carcinomas, and 2 patients had tubular carcinomas. 24 patients were G1, 46 patients were G2 and 30 were G3. 57/100 patients were node negatives and 43/100 werenode positives. In all cases ER/PR receptor status, HER2...

Invasive carcinomas of the breast are different both in term of biological behavior and radiologic appearance [17-23]. Our results showed that the tumor grade on invasive cancers influenced the ultrasound findings. Low tumor grade (G1 and G2) was associated to spiculated margin, posterior acoustic shadowing and hyperechoic halo (Fig. 9). High tumor grade correlates to inhomogeneous/middle hypoechoic echo pattern, abrupt interface and absence of posterior acoustic shadowing (Fig. 10). Probably these differentiations were related to the stromal reaction and to the cellular microstructure. Traditionally, a...

M. Costantini P. Belli E. Bufi L. Bonomo Bio-Imaging and Radiological Sciences Department Cattolica del Sacro Cuore University Rome - Italy E. Ferra G. T. Bitti Radiology Department Brotzu Hospital Cagliari - Italy

1. Smith DN. Breast Ultrasound. Radiol Clin North Am 2001;39:485-97 2. Stavros AT, Thickmann D, Rapp CL, et al. Solid breast nodules: use of sonography to distinguish between benign and malignant lesions. Radiology 1995;196:123-34 3. American College of Radiology (ACR). ACR BI-RADS-US. In ACR Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System. Reston VA; American College of Radiology, 2003 4. Costantini M, Belli P, Lombardi R, Franceschini G, Mulè A, Bonomo L. Characterization of solid breast masses: use of sonographic Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System Lexicon....