Know the Basics
There are three imaging techniques used to evaluate the breast for breast cancer: mammography, ultrasound, and breast MRI. Each imaging technique provides a unique piece of information in your evaluation. Often more than one type of imaging is necessary to fully evaluate breast symptoms and to look for breast cancer.
Breast Ultrasound, also known as sonography or ultrasonography, uses ultrasound waves to construct images of the breast. There is no radiation exposure with ultrasound examinations.
Breast ultrasound is used for the following purposes
- Evaluate breast abnormalities that are found on screening mammography (this is often done in addition to mammography during the callback appointment).
- Evaluate new breast symptoms including a palpable lump or focal breast pain in conjunction with mammography.
- Ultrasound is the first and often only imaging modality used to evaluate breast symptoms in women younger than 30.
- evaluate abnormal findings seen on breast MRI to determine if an ultrasound guided biopsy may be possible.
Ultrasound is excellent at imaging cysts, which are round, fluid-filled pockets inside the breast. Ultrasound can often quickly determine if a suspicious area is in fact a benign cyst (always non-cancerous) or a solid mass, which may require a biopsy to determine if it is cancerous.
Who should have a breast ultrasound?
- Patients who have an abnormal finding on their screening mammogram will be contacted to return for a diagnostic examination, which usually consists of both additional mammographic images and a breast ultrasound.
- Patients who have breast symptoms like a lump in the breast, focal breast pain (pain that you can designate with one finger, NOT regional or whole breast pain), and nipple discharge.