乳腺癌的不典型X线表现

目的：探讨乳腺癌不典型的X线征象及诊断。方法：按照美国放射学会(ACR)创立并推荐的乳腺影像报道及数据系统的标准，总结分析27例经手术病理征实的乳腺癌不典型X线征象。结果：27例中，乳腺结构变形10例，肿块11例，钙化6例。结论：乳腺癌在X线征象上不具特征性，可表现为乳腺结构扭曲、局限致密、毛刺肿块、钙化。仔细阅片，全面分析，必要时行B超、CT、MRI、SCNB等影像学检查，可提高诊断准确率。     

乳腺癌钼靶X线表现与雌激素受体表达相关性的研究

目的:探讨乳腺癌钼靶X线表现与雌激素受体(ER)表达之间的相关性。方法:将180例乳腺癌患者X线征象中钙化、毛刺、结构紊乱、病变密度增高、边缘浸润及是否同时合并乳腺囊性增生症与经免疫组织化学染色测定ER表达进行对照研究。结果:180例乳腺癌患者中,有钙化者98例,占54.4%;出现毛刺征75例,占41.7%;结构紊乱72例,占40%;病变区表现为高密度90例,占50%;有边缘浸润者96例,占53.5%;乳腺癌同时合并乳腺囊性增生症91例,占50.6%。ER表达阳性100例,占55.6%。毛刺征、边缘浸润征组及同时合并乳腺囊性增生症者ER阳性表达率高;结构紊乱、病变区高密度ER阳性表达率低,钙化征与ER表达无关。结论:乳腺癌钼靶X线征象在一定程度上反映了ER表达状态。     

Application of artificial neural networks to the analysis of dynamic MR imaging features of the breast

The discriminative ability of established diagnostic criteria for MRI of the breast is assessed, and their relative relevance using artificial neural networks (ANNs) is determined. A total of 89 women with 105 histopathologically verified breast lesions (73 invasive cancers, 2 in situ cancers, and 30 benign lesions) were included in this study. A T1-weighted 3D FLASH sequence was acquired before and seven times after the intravenous administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine at a dose of 0.2 mmol/kg body weight. ANN models were built to test the discriminative ability of kinetic, morphologic, and combined MR features. The subjects were randomly divided into two parts: a training set of 59 lesions and a verification set of 46 lesions. The training set was used for learning, and the performance of each model was evaluated on the verification set by measuring the area under the ROC curve (A_z). An optimally minimized model was constructed using the most relevant input variables that were determined by the automatic relevance determination (ARD) method. ANN models were compared with the performance of a human reader. Margin type, time-to-peak enhancement, and washout ratio showed the highest discriminative ability among diagnostic criteria and comprised the minimized model. Compared with the expert radiologist (A_z=0.799), using the same prediction scale, the minimized ANN model performed best (A_z=0.771), followed by the best kinetic (A_z=0.743), the maximized (A_z=0.727), and the morphologic model (A_z=0.678). The performance of a neural network prediction model is comparable to that of an expert radiologist. A neurostatistical approach is preferred for the analysis of diagnostic criteria when many parameters are involved and complex nonlinear relationships exist in the data set.     

乳腺黏液癌的钼靶X线表现及病理分子生物学特点

目的：研究乳腺黏液癌钼靶X线表现及病理、分子生物学特点。方法：对21例乳腺黏液癌进行回顾性分析,总结其钼靶X线表现、病理基础,免疫组化检测P53、雌激素受体（ER）、孕激素受体（PR）、c-erbB-2表达状态。结果：钼靶X线表现：肿块16例,仅表现为钙化2例;结构变形3例。病理：单纯型15例,混合型6例。21例中,P53阳性8例、阴性13例;ER阳性16例、阴性5例;PR阳性18例、阴性3例。结论：乳腺黏液癌钼靶X线表现具有不同病理基础,分子生物学特点提示其预后较好。本研究为探讨其X线表现与病理学、分子生物学之间的相关性提供了参考。     

Breast lesions on sonograms: computer-aided diagnosis with nearly setting-independent features and artificial neural networks

PURPOSE: To develop a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) algorithm with setting-independent features and artificial neural networks to differentiate benign from malignant breast lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two sets of breast sonograms were evaluated. The first set contained 160 lesions and was stored directly on the magnetic optic disks from the ultrasonographic (US) system. Four different boundaries were delineated by four persons for each lesion in the first set. The second set comprised 111 lesions that were extracted from the hard-copy images. Seven morphologic features were used, five of which were newly developed. A multilayer feed-forward neural network was used as the classifier. Reliability, extendability, and robustness of the proposed CAD algorithm were evaluated. Results with the proposed algorithm were compared with those with two previous CAD algorithms. All performance comparisons were based on paired-samples t tests. RESULTS: The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (A(z)) was 0.952 +/- 0.014 for the first set, 0.982 +/- 0.004 for the first set as the training set and the second set as the prediction set, 0.954 +/- 0.016 for the second set as the training set and the first set as the prediction set, and 0.950 +/- 0.005 for all 271 lesions. At the 5% significance level, the performance of the proposed CAD algorithm was shown to be extendible from one set of US images to the other set and robust for both small and large sample sizes. Moreover, the proposed CAD algorithm was shown to outperform the two previous CAD algorithms in terms of the A(z) value. CONCLUSION: The proposed CAD algorithm could effectively and reliably differentiate benign and malignant lesions. The proposed morphologic features were nearly setting independent and could tolerate reasonable variation in boundary delineation.     

Mucinous (colloid) breast cancer: mammographic and US features with histologic correlation

OBJECTIVE: Mucinous carcinoma of the breast presents with different survival rates in pure and mixed types. The purpose of this study was to correlate the mammographic and ultrasonographic findings of mucinous carcinoma with histologic features in different types and mucin rates. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty-four patients (2.3%) had mucinous cancer after retrospective review of the 1439 breast cancers diagnosed between 1990 and 1996. Twenty-seven patients, 19 pure and eight mixed type of mucinous carcinomas of the breast, were included in this study to evaluate the imaging findings. In 22 of these, the microscopic slides were available and re-evaluated to estimate the volume of extracellular mucin. The volume of the extracellular mucin was classified histologically as: (+), less than 50% of mucin; (++), 50-80% of mucin; and ( ), more than 80% of mucin. Mammographic features with emphasis on margin characteristics and sonographic echo pattern of tumors were correlated with histologic findings. RESULTS: Ten cases (53%) of pure mucinous type carcinomas had a circumscribed mass lesion on the mammograms. The well-defined, lobulated margins of the masses were well correlated with pure histologic type (P<0.01; chi(2) analysis) Two-thirds of these tumors had high volume extracellular mucin. All mixed type mucinous carcinomas demonstrated poorly defined or spiculated margins with no relation to the mucin rates (P<0.01). The sonographic appearances of the tumors showed correlation with histologic types. Most of the pure type carcinomas (53%) were seen with isoechogenic echo texture relative to that of subcutaneous fat, while all of the mixed type carcinomas were hypoechogenic (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: The mammographic and sonographic features of mucinous breast carcinoma show differences in pure and mixed types of the tumor. The most common mammographic appearance of pure mucinous carcinomas with high percentages of mucin is a mass lesion having well-defined margins, which is isoechogenic relative to fat on the sonographic examination. Pure type of carcinomas with small percentages of mucin and mixed type carcinomas have more aggressive imaging characteristics.     

乳腺少见肿瘤的X线表现

目的：探讨乳腺少见肿瘤的X线表现特点。方法回顾性分析经本院病理证实的6例少见乳腺肿瘤的X线表现。结果6例乳腺肿瘤中,颗粒细胞瘤1例,角化棘皮瘤1例,多形性腺瘤1例,鳞状细胞癌1例,透明细胞汗腺癌1例,癌肉瘤1例。X线表现：3例良性肿瘤中,圆形或椭圆形2例、不规则形1例,边缘光滑2例、边缘模糊1例,3例均无伴钙化;3例恶性肿瘤中,圆形或椭圆形1例、不规则形2例,边缘模糊2例、边缘毛刺1例,2例伴钙化、1例无钙化。结论乳腺部分少见肿瘤X线表现具有特征性,大部分少见肿瘤无特征性,需综合分析及病理学检查确诊。     

The mammographic features of the postlumpectomy, postirradiation breast

Lumpectomy with radiation therapy is becoming widely accepted as an alternative treatment for breast carcinoma in place of radical mastectomy. This article illustrates the spectrum of mammographic changes seen at various intervals after lumpectomy with irradiation to help the mammographer distinguish postoperative scar from a recurrent carcinoma.     

Radial sclerosing lesion of the breast: mammographic features

The authors present the clinical, mammographic, and pathologic findings in seven patients with radial sclerosing lesions (RSLs) who had a nonpalpable stellate lesion at mammography. Although the radiographic findings were suggestive of RSL in six of seven patients, diagnostic excisional biopsy was recommended for all. One RSL had associated microcalcifications localized in contiguous adenosis. The authors did not find this a useful criterion to differentiate RSL from carcinoma. Similarly, the presence of either a lucent or dense central core was not radiographically diagnostic. Surgical excision of these stellate lesions is therefore required.     

Medical image analysis with artificial neural networks

Given that neural networks have been widely reported in the research community of medical imaging, we provide a focused literature survey on recent neural network developments in computer-aided diagnosis, medical image segmentation and edge detection towards visual content analysis, and medical image registration for its pre-processing and post-processing, with the aims of increasing awareness of how neural networks can be applied to these areas and to provide a foundation for further research and practical development. Representative techniques and algorithms are explained in detail to provide inspiring examples illustrating: (i) how a known neural network with fixed structure and training procedure could be applied to resolve a medical imaging problem; (ii) how medical images could be analysed, processed, and characterised by neural networks; and (iii) how neural networks could be expanded further to resolve problems relevant to medical imaging. In the concluding section, a highlight of comparisons among many neural network applications is included to provide a global view on computational intelligence with neural networks in medical imaging.     

钼靶X线征象与不同类型乳腺癌关系的病理基础研究

目的:探讨不同类型乳腺癌的X线表现与其病理基础之间的关系。方法:经乳腺X线检查,手术、病理证实的乳腺癌36例,共36个病灶,包括浸润性导管癌26个,导管内癌及导管内癌伴微浸润7个,浸润性小叶癌2个,黏液腺癌伴浸润性导管癌1个。观察乳腺癌的X线表现,与病理分型对照。结果:①癌灶的X线表现有肿块者23个(63.9%),有钙化者18个(50%),有结构扭曲者3个(8.3%);②呈肿块表现的以浸润性导管癌为主,占87.9%;有钙化者易出现在导管内癌和浸润性导管癌中,分别占87.5%、42.3%,尤其单纯钙化多出现在导管内癌中(71.4%,5/7);结构扭曲可见于浸润性导管癌和导管内癌中,其它类型未见。结论:肿块、钙化和结构扭曲为乳腺癌的主要X线表现。浸润性导管癌占乳腺癌的大部分,除单纯钙化首先考虑导管内癌,其余征象均首先考虑浸润性导管癌;肿块改变尚要想到髓样癌和黏液腺癌的可能;结构扭曲也可出现在导管内癌中。     

Changes in mammographic features of breast cancer--comparison with previous films]

Mammographic features of 87 breast cancer patients were studied in comparison with their previous survey films. Changes in the mammographic features included microcalicification (28 cases), tumor shadow (35 cases) and intratumorous microcalicifications (6 cases). Seven cases had several extremely faint calcifications on the previous films, and three of six cases with clustered and scattered microcalcifications that extended over an entire breast quadrant had increased in number, density and extent. Eight cases in which clustered microcalcifications had increased in number, density and extent suggested a relationship between the increase in the extent of microcalcifications and length of time between visits. In most cases with tumor shadow, a slight localized increase in mammary gland density, irregular margins and straightened trabeculae were overlooked because of breast density.     

Lobular carcinoma in situ of the breast: mammographic features

Lobular carcinoma in situ (lobular neoplasia; LCIS) of the breast is most commonly an incidental microscopic finding in breast tissue removed for some other reason. The authors reviewed the clinical and mammographic features and surgical findings in 26 cases of LCIS not associated with other breast abnormalities. In 16 instances, needle localization was performed before removal of the tissue, which yielded LCIS on histologic examination. Calcifications were the most common reason for biopsy, although there were no distinctive mammographic features of LCIS.     

Tubular carcinoma of the breast: mammographic and sonographic features

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to define specific mammographic and sonographic features of tubular carcinoma of the breast. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventeen pathologically confirmed cases of tubular carcinoma were characterized retrospectively by two radiologists. Mammograms and sonograms were available for all patients. RESULTS: Fifteen of the 17 tubular carcinomas appeared as irregularly shaped masses with spiculated margins on mammography. Sixteen of the 17 masses had central densities. Spicules longer than the diameter of the central lesion were noted in eight (53%) of 15 tubular carcinomas. Eight tubular carcinomas had associated calcifications, with calcifications suspected of being malignant in four cases. On sonography, 15 hypoechoic masses were seen. The margins of the masses on sonography were described as ill-defined in 14 (93%) of the 15 cases. Posterior acoustic shadowing was present in 14 of the 15 cases. CONCLUSION: Tubular carcinomas are usually seen on mammography as irregularly shaped masses with central densities and spiculated margins, and most tubular carcinomas can be identified on sonography as hypoechoic masses with ill-defined margins and posterior acoustic shadowing. Although the mammographic and sonographic features of tubular carcinoma are not sufficiently specific to differentiate tubular carcinomas from radial scars, sonography can be useful for guiding biopsies and evaluating for multifocal and multicentric disease.     

Quantitative assessment of mammographic breast density: relationship with breast cancer risk

Increased mammographic breast density is a moderate independent risk factor for breast cancer, with findings of published studies in which quantitative methods of assessment were used showing a positive association. Breast density may be quantified by using visual assessment or planimetry. Although the category definitions vary, the odds ratio for developing breast cancer for the most dense compared with the least dense breast tissue categories ranges from 1.8 to 6.0, with most studies yielding an odds ratio of 4.0 or greater. Plausible explanations for the association of breast density with increased breast cancer risk may be the development of premalignant lesions such as atypical ductal hyperplasia, elevated growth factors, or increased estrogen production within the breast due to overactive aromatase. The amount of breast density may be due in part to genetic heredity. However, unlike other risk factors, breast density may be influenced. Specifically, breast density is very hormonally responsive and potentially may be influenced by lifestyle factors such as alcohol intake and diet. Assessment of breast density may become useful in risk assessment and prevention decisions.     

Relationships between age, mammographic features and pathological tumour characteristics in non-palpable breast cancer

Non-palpable breast cancers are often in situ or smaller and have less nodal and distant metastases than palpable lesions. They represent a heterogeneous group of tumours, which may have different prognostic behaviour. We analysed a retrospective series of 982 non-palpable breast cancers assessed histologically at the National Cancer Institute of Milan from 1985 to 1995, following pre-operative mammography-guided localization. The association between mammographic data (parenchymal pattern and findings), patient age and tumour histology was investigated by review of clinical records and statistical modelling. We also investigated the association between the presence or absence of microcalcification as a mammographic finding and pathological tumour characteristics (tumour size, axillary nodes status and grading) or receptor status for oestrogen (ER) and progesterone (PgR). In situ disease or invasive tumour with an intraductal component, whether extensive or not, were commoner in young women and mammography more frequently showed a dense parenchymal pattern and microcalcifications in these cases. In older women (55 years or more), a fatty breast pattern, nodular opacities with or without microcalcifications, and invasive tumours of the ductal, lobular, mixed or other types were closely related. When the relationships between mammographic findings, pathological tumour characteristics and receptor status were investigated for invasive cancers, there was an association between the presence of microcalcifications and less favourable tumour characteristics.