Breast cancer is one of the most common tumors among modern women. In recent years, the incidence of breast cancer among women in some large cities in China has risen rapidly, and in some cities it has ranked first among female malignant tumors. The symptoms and signs of early breast cancer are not obvious. If early detection and timely treatment can be achieved, the 5-year survival rate is close to 70%. The imaging examination of breast has important value in the early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer, and is the key to improve the survival rate of breast cancer patients. Traditional palpation, molybdenum target X-ray photography and B ultrasound have always been the main examination methods, but they have certain limitations. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an important means of breast imaging because of its high soft tissue resolution.
At present, the commonly used clinical imaging methods for breast examination include mammography, ultrasound, CT, MRI, etc. What are their advantages and disadvantages?
1. Molybdenum target photography: it started in the 1960s and has been developed to maturity. It has the characteristics of high diagnostic accuracy, relatively low cost and simple operation, and some patients can also have needle biopsy. It is still recognized as the preferred method for imaging examination of breast diseases so far, and can display lumps and small calcifications in the breast. However, the mass near the chest wall is easy to be missed by molybdenum target photography, the contrast of dense breast is poor, and small masses cannot be found. Because there is ionizing radiation and the breast needs to be squeezed for many times to flatten and thicken the breast tissue and highlight the focus, the patient receiving the examination may be more painful.
2. Breast ultrasound: no ionizing radiation, not easily affected by glands. It can differentiate cystic or solid lesions, but it is difficult to detect tumors with diameter less than 0.5. It is less sensitive to breast cancer with negative palpation, and its spatial resolution is slightly low, so it cannot detect microcalcifications.
3. Breast MRI: no ionizing radiation. Compared with other technologies, breast MRI has the advantages of high tissue resolution and 3D imaging. Images can be obtained from multiple layers, angles and parameters, so it is superior to other imaging technologies in displaying the size, shape, number and location of lesions, and can detect multifocal lesions, multicentric lesions and deep lesions. Magnetic resonance has opened up a new way for the diagnosis of breast diseases by using breast coil, fat suppression scanning sequence, diffusion weighted imaging, plain scanning and dynamic enhanced scanning. It is of great value to the invasion of breast cancer, the selection of preoperative surgical methods, and the evaluation of postoperative, and it has been paid more and more attention at home and abroad. For patients with breast prosthesis implantation, magnetic resonance mammography is indispensable if they want to evaluate the implantation of the prosthesis, whether there is a prosthesis rupture, whether there is a prosthesis immersion, and whether there is a scope of immersion, and whether there is a residual after the prosthesis removal. However, magnetic resonance imaging is often not the preferred routine examination method because of its long time, high cost, patients need to lie down to accept the examination and poor calcification.
The above are the advantages and disadvantages of several commonly used breast imaging inspection methods. Clinicians and patients can choose flexibly according to the specific condition. There is no so-called best choice, but they should choose according to the actual situation.
(Zoelli picture of MRI room is from the Internet)
