Comparative Study of Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) with and without Ultrasound versus Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in Detecting Breast Lesion

Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is a fairly recent breast imaging technique invented to overcome the challenges of overlapping breast tissue. Ultrasonography (USG) was used as a complementary tool to DBT for the purpose of this study. Nonetheless, breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) remains the most sensitive tool to detect breast lesion. The purpose of this study was to evaluate diagnostic performance of DBT, with and without USG, versus breast MRI in correlation to histopathological examination (HPE). This was a retrospective study in a university hospital over a duration of 24 months. Findings were acquired from a formal report and were correlated with HPE. The sensitivity of DBT with or without USG was lower than MRI. However, the accuracy, specificity and PPV were raised with the aid of USG to equivalent or better than MRI. These three modalities showed statistically significant in correlation with HPE (p < 0.005, chi-squared). Generally, DBT alone has lower sensitivity as compared to MRI. However, it is reassuring that DBT + USG could significantly improve diagnostic performance to that comparable to MRI. In conclusion, results of this study are vital to centers which do not have MRI, as complementary ultrasound can accentuate diagnostic performance of DBT.

Automated summary

This study evaluates the diagnostic performance of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) compared to breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in detecting breast lesions. The results show that DBT with ultrasound (USG) has lower sensitivity but higher accuracy compared to MRI. The correlation with histopathological examination is statistically significant.