3D Harmonic and Subharmonic Imaging for Characterizing Breast Lesions: A Multi-Center Clinical Trial.

Objective: Breast cancer is the most frequent type of cancer among women. This multi-center study assessed the ability of 3D contrast-enhanced ultrasound to characterize suspicious breast lesions using clinical assessments and quantitative parameters.

Methods: Women with suspicious breast lesions scheduled for biopsy were enrolled in this prospective, study.

Static and dynamic cumulative maximum intensity display mode for subharmonic breast imaging: a comparative study with mammographic and conventional ultrasound techniques.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of static and dynamic cumulative maximum intensity (CMI) subharmonic imaging (SHI) in breast ultrasound studies.

Methods: Contrast-enhanced SHI was performed in 14 women using a modified LOGIQ 9 scanner (GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI) transmitting/receiving at 4.4/2.

Breast lesions: imaging with contrast-enhanced subharmonic US--initial experience.

Purpose: To prospectively compare accuracy of gray-scale subharmonic imaging (SHI) with that of standard gray-scale ultrasonography (US), power Doppler US (with and without contrast material), and mammography for the diagnosis of breast cancer, with histopathologic or clinical follow-up results as the reference standard.

Materials And Methods: This HIPAA-compliant pilot study had institutional review board approval; all subjects gave written informed consent. Fourteen women (age range, 37-66 years) had 16 biopsy-proved breast lesions.

Benign versus malignant classification of breast tumors based on the the PLSN model for the ultrasound RF echo and homomorphic filtering.

The Power-law Shot Noise (PLSN) model has been recently proposed for modeling the ultrasound radio-frequency echo. According to it, the spectrum of the in-phase/quadrature/envelope components are power-law functions. The corresponding power-law exponents were shown to possess good tissue characterization ability.

Detection of breast lesion regions in ultrasound images using wavelets and order statistics.

Accurate detection and segmentation of suspicious regions within the complex and irregular tissues of the breast, as depicted with ultrasonic B scans, typically require human analysis and decision making. Tissue characterization methods for classifying suspicious regions often depend on identifying and then accurately segmenting these regions. Motivated by an ultimate goal to automate this critical identification and segmentation step for tissue characterization problems, this work examines ultrasonic signal characteristics between various regions of breast tissue broadly classified as normal tissue and breast lesions.

Evaluation of neck and body metastases to nodes with ferumoxtran 10-enhanced MR imaging: phase III safety and efficacy study.

Purpose: To determine the safety and efficacy of ferumoxtran 10-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for diagnosis of metastases to lymph nodes and the clinical usefulness of ferumoxtran 10 in nodal staging.

Materials And Methods: One hundred fifty-two patients were injected with ferumoxtran 10. Readers independently evaluated precontrast MR images by using node size criteria and subjective assessment of other imaging features.

Computer-aided classification of breast masses in ultrasonic B-scans using a multiparameter approach.

Classification of breast masses in ultrasonic B-scan images is undertaken using a multiparameter approach. The parameters are generated on the basis of a non-Rayleigh statistic model of the backscattered envelope from the breast tissue. They can be computed automatically with minimal clinical intervention once the location of the mass is known.

Classification of breast masses in ultrasonic B scans using Nakagami and K distributions.

Classification of breast masses in greyscale ultrasound images is undertaken using a multiparameter approach. Five parameters reflecting the non-Rayleigh nature of the backscattered echo were used. These parameters, based mostly on the Nakagami and K distributions, were extracted from the envelope of the echoes at the site, boundary, spiculated region and shadow of the mass.

Malignant and benign breast tissue classification performance using a scatterer structure preclassifier.

Benign and malignant breast tissue classification is examined for generalized-spectrum parameters computed from RF ultrasound data when a preclassification of subregions based on general scattering properties is performed. Results using a clinical database of 84 patients show statistically significant improvements (over 10% in receiver operation characteristic (ROC) areas) when only coherent scatterer subregions are used as compared to using all subregions within the region of interest.

ROC analysis of ultrasound tissue characterization classifiers for breast cancer diagnosis.

Breast cancer diagnosis through ultrasound tissue characterization was studied using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of combinations of acoustic features, patient age, and radiological findings. A feature fusion method was devised that operates even if only partial diagnostic data are available. The ROC methodology uses ordinal dominance theory and bootstrap resampling to evaluate A(z) and confidence intervals in simple as well as paired data analyses.

Hepatic tumor detection: MR imaging and conventional US versus pulse-inversion harmonic US of NC100100 during its reticuloendothelial system-specific phase.

Purpose: To compare conventional ultrasonography (US) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with contrast agent-enhanced US for detection of VX-2 liver tumors in rabbits.

Materials And Methods: Conventional gray-scale liver US was performed in 65 rabbits, 38 of which had VX-2 hepatic tumor implants. Twenty minutes after contrast agent injection, gray-scale pulse-inversion harmonic US images of the liver-specific phase were obtained.

Correlation of single-lumen silicone implant integrity with chemical shift artifact on T2-weighted magnetic resonance images.

Purpose: To correlate the integrity of single-lumen silicone gel implants with chemical shift artifact (CSA) associated with infolding of the elastomer shell.

Materials And Methods: The T2-weighted images of presurgical MRI examinations of 54 implants were retrospectively reviewed by two breast radiologists blinded to the operative and pathologic findings. CSA associated with intraluminal membranes was quantified by determining the fraction of membranes with it and categorized as minimal (0-1/3 of membranes involved), moderate (>1/3- <2/3), and marked (2/3 to all).