breast ultrasound
Ultrasonography is a technique that does not use ionizing radiation for image formation. It uses high-frequency sound waves, which when they hit organs and tissues produce echoes. These echoes are converted into real-time images of the body's organs, tissues, and blood flow, which can be viewed on a computer screen.
Ultrasound is useful for looking at some breast changes, such as those that can be felt but not seen on a mammogram or variations in women with dense breast tissue. It can also be used to look at changes that have been identified on a mammogram. Ultrasound can be used to distinguish the difference between liquid cysts and solid masses.
The ultrasound can be done in a doctor's office, clinic or hospital. With the patient lying on a stretcher, the doctor will place a gel on the skin where the transducer will be manipulated. This gel lubricates the skin and helps to conduct sound waves. The gel is cold and slippery.
What is the color doppler breast ultrasonography like?
Doppler ultrasound of the breasts is characterized by the evaluation of the breast parenchyma through the two-dimensional mode plus the Doppler velocimetric study.
Color Doppler is a feature present in some ultrasound devices that gives color to everything that moves, that is, to the blood inside the vessel. Therefore, if a breast nodule is hyper vascularized, we will be able to recognize the vascular pattern by this feature.
- The vascular pattern observed in the breast nodule takes into account some criteria, such as the number and location of the vessels (whether it is peripheral or central).
- Another criterion evaluated is the spectral curve, which informs the value of the maximum and minimum systolic velocity. The normal value of the maximum systolic velocity for the breast is around 16 cm/s. Some authors have reported higher velocities in the case of malignant neoplasms, but these data are not well established in the world literature.
- This test is useful in the complementary assessment of focal mammographic changes or clinical findings and in the clinical suspicion of inflammatory processes.
Breast Magnetic Resonance
Although MRI scans can diagnose some types of cancer that are not seen on a mammogram, it is also more likely to find something other than cancer (called a false positive). False positive results should be investigated to see if cancer is not present. This means that more tests and/or biopsies must be performed. For this reason, MRI is not indicated as a screening test for women at medium risk of breast cancer, because it would imply unnecessary tests and biopsies in many of these women.
Magnetic resonance imaging is used primarily in women who have already been diagnosed with breast cancer to more accurately determine the size of the tumor and the existence (or not) of other tumors in the breast. In addition to allowing a detailed evaluation of the nodules, without using X-rays, it also provides a more comprehensive view of the deep region of the breast tissue. Breast MRI is also recommended along with annual mammograms for diagnosing breast cancer in women at high risk for the disease.
Sorocaba Medical Center
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