Automatic breast volume scanner as good as handheld ultrasound in diagnosing breast lesions

Automatic breast volume scanner (ABVS) performs as good as handheld ultrasound (HHUS) with respect to diagnostic performance in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant breast lesions, revealed a study published in journal Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology.

Breast ultrasound is considered as the first line diagnostic procedure in suspects. Conventional handheld ultrasound (HHUS) has several limitations, including operator dependence and the time required for the whole-breast examination. In contrast, automated breast volume scanner (ABVS) has several advantages over HHUS, such as higher reproducibility, less operator dependence, and less time required for image acquisition

The study was designed to compare the automatic breast volume scanner (ABVS) and handheld ultrasound (HHUS) with respect to diagnostic performance in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant breast lesions and to achieve the same, a literature search of the PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library databases through 30 June 2018 was conducted.

The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios and diagnostic odds ratios of the ABVS and HHUS were calculated, and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves were drawn. A total of nine studies, including 1985 lesions (628 malignant and 1357 benign) from 1774 patients, were analyzed.

Upon analysis of the data, the key observations made by the authors were: pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio for ABVS was found to be 90.8%, 82.2%, 5.39, 0.10 and 61.68; those for HHUS were 90.6%, 81.0%, 5.22, 0.11 and 52.60, respectively.

The areas under the SROC curves in the differentiation of benign and malignant breast lesions were 0.93 and 0.94 for ABVS and HHUS, respectively, which were not significantly different.

In conclusion, based on available evidence in the literature the authors wrote: "ABVS the diagnostic performance of the ABVS is similar to that of HHUS in the differentiation of benign and malignant breast lesions."

Read More: Adding Ultrasound to Mammography does not improve breast cancer detection: JAMA

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2019.04.028