Comparison of Conventional Ultrasound and Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound in Breast Invasive Ductal Carcinoma in Different T Stages

摘要

Accurate tumor size measurement is related to breast-conserving surgery decisions. There was little evidence of an association between conventional Ultrasound (US) and Contrast-enhanced US (CEUS) in predicting T stage of Breast Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (BIDC). The purpose of this study was to explore the value of CEUS in measuring the size and predicting T stage of BIDC. Conventional US and CEUS were performed on a Siemens Acuson S2000 scanner before pathology examinations. One hundred and three patients confirmed with nodules of BIDC were included in the study. Person's correlations, linear regression and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to evaluate the relationship between two methods. Among 103 nodules, there were 16 nodules in T1 stage, 71 nodules in T2 stage and 16 nodules in T3 stage. The results show that CEUS consistently enlarge tumor size measurement: the bias of width were 3.1 +/- 1.3 mm, 3.9 +/- 1.8 mm and 3.3 +/- 1.5 mm for T1, T2 and T3 stages, respectively; and bias of depth were 2.0 +/- 1.1 mm, 2.5 +/- 1.2 mm and 2.5 +/- 1.0 mm for T1, T2 and T3 stages, respectively. Significant correlations were observed between size measurements of US and CEUS (width measurement: r = 0.908, r = 0.925 and r = 0.968 for T1, T2 and T3 stages respectively; depth measurement: r = 0.959, r = 0.971 and r = 0.992 for T1, T2 and T3 stages respectively; all P < 0.001). Linear regression models similar among different T stages. In conclusion, this study suggests that larger size measured by CEUS than US. CEUS could be an useful method for measuring the size and predicting the T stage of BIDC.