PMID: 16617563Apr 19, 2006Paper

Videodensitometry in the examination of focal breast lesions after injection of an ultrasound contrast agent

Anticancer Research
Jens-Uwe BlohmerAnke Thomas

Abstract

The present investigation aimed at assessing the possibility of distinguishing between malignant and benign breast lesions by measuring the signal intensity in vessels of the suspect lesions over time after administration of the ultrasound contrast agent Levovist. Levovist was administered intravenously to 21 patients with breast cancer and 12 patients with a benign breast lesion. In the subsequent ultrasound investigation (Color Power Angiography) the resulting increase in brightness over time in the vessels of the lesions was measured using the videodensitometry method. From the calculated time-brightness curves, the time to maximum brightness (T(max)), time to 90% of maximum brightness (T(90%)), maximum brightness and other time and brightness parameters were determined. The data were analyzed by means of the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test. Additionally, the sensitivity and specificity were calculated for a sequence of cut-off levels for T(90%), T(max) maximum brightness and wash-in wash-out parameters. The differences between the benign and the malignant lesions for the parameters T(max) and T(90%) were statistically significant. The malignant foci showed a significantly more rapid in-flow of the contrast agent (p = 0.006) than...Continue Reading

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