Radiology, Vol 181, 143-146, Copyright © 1991 by Radiological Society of North America
Occult breast masses: use of a mammographic localizing grid for US evaluation
WF Conway, CW Hayes and WH Brewer
Department of Radiology, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond 23298- 0615.
To determine if there was a problem of misidentification of
mammographically detected masses with freehand ultrasound (US), the authors
examined 50 mammographically distinct masses in 47 patients who were
scheduled to undergo needle localization. In only six cases were the masses
to be localized in an area of the breast that contained other mammographic
opacities that could have led to problems of identification. The patients
were first studied with freehand US. Results were then compared with those
subsequently obtained with a fenestrated mammographic compression grid to
guide the US evaluation. Needle localization was then performed. In five of
50 cases, masses detected with freehand US and initially believed to
correspond to the mammographically detected mass were subsequently found to
represent different areas of the breast when US was used with the
compression grid. These results suggest that the potential for
misidentification of masses with freehand US is real and that a
mammographic grid localization device can be used to overcome this problem.
