:::: PROCEDURE : BREAST ULTRASOUND :.

There is no radiation associated with ultrasound and no measurable effect on the tissues being examined. Ultrasound is particularly useful in demonstrating the difference between cysts (water-filled sacs) or solid lumps, which may or may not be cancerous. Ultrasound is of great benefit in “seeing through” dense breast tissue, which might be difficult to evaluate on the mammographic film.

Most patients with lumps, which they or their physicians have felt, will have a breast ultrasound study as part of the imaging workup. Radiologists may request an ultrasound study after observing an area of interest that is not well seen on a screening mammogram.

Ultrasound is often the first and may be the only study needed to evaluate lumps in women less than 30 years of age. Radiologists commonly use ultrasound to guide the placement of a needle during a needle biopsy.

Each white spot on the film represents an “echo” of an ultrasound wave that is being reflected back to the transducer. Where there is dense tissue there will be white dots (yellow arrows). Sound waves pass freely through fluid without bouncing back until they encounter tissue. A fluid filled cyst appears as a black hole with no echoes (Fig. B, white arrow).

A solid mass (Fig. C, green arrow) causes echoes, but not as intensely as normal glandular tissue (yellow arrow).