New signs of breast cancer: High resistance flow and variations in resistive indices evaluation by color Doppler sonography

In a prospective study, color Doppler sonograms (CDS) were performed in 142 patients with solid breast lesions (64 carcinomas, 53 fibroadenomas, 25 miscellaneous breast diseases). Exclusively intratumoral RI were determined, with only the highest and lowest value in the various vessels of a tumor being considered. We found that an RI < 0.80 is typical for benign breast conditions, but also frequently occurs in malignant lesions. A significant difference was seen for higher RIs. An RI greater than or equal to 0.80 was seen to be an indicator of malignancy with high specificity (916%) and a sensitivity of 55%. Moreover, RI differences in malignant lesions were markedly greater than in benign lesions. An RI difference greater than or equal to 0.20 among vessels of one tumor was a malignancy indicator with very high specificity (97%) but relatively low sensitivity (39%). An RI greater than or equal to 0.80 and RI differences greater than or equal to 0.20 are specific Doppler ultrasound (US) malignancy indicators. (C) 1997 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology.