古田 智彦, 宮 喜一, 佐治 重豊

Tomohiko FURUTA, Kiichi MIYA, Shigetoyo SAJI

岐阜大学医学部第2外科

The Second Department of Surgery, Gifu University School of Medicine

キーワード : Breast Cyst, Thickness of the Breast, Hand-held Transducer , Ultrasonography

We evaluated the usefulness of ultrasonographic (US) examination for the screening of breast lesions using a hand-held high-frequency, high-resolutional transducer with the depictability of breast cysts and the thickness of the breast. US findings in most breast cancer or benign lesions show the low echogenic spot in the mammary gland. Sometimes it is slight difficult to differentiate these lesions ultrasonographically. So, at the screening examination, these low echogenic spots must be detected without any omissions. Because breast cysts usually show low echogenic spots, a US examination is a very useful means to depict cysts. We have been using a hand-held mechanical inline sector scanner, the Aloka SSD 125 with 7.5 or 10MHz high freoquency transducer since 1985. We examined 943 asymptomatic or benign patients in a primary US examination. Results: (1)194 cases (20.6%) had one or more cysts of minimumu diameter 2 mm or more. (2)The maximum thickness from the surface of the breast to the bottom of the mammary gland or the surface of the major pectoral muscle was measured on the US image or film. The average maximum thickness was 17.5±4.4 mm in 688 breasts considered normal. (3)There was no correlation between the thickness of the breast and age or obecity. Conclusion: this US examination depicts almost all of breast cysts and the thickness of Japanese women's breasts are included in the effective range of the resolving power of the above transducer. Therefore, we confirmed that US screening examination using the above transducer is reliable to depict abnormal low echogenic spots without any omissions.