Monofrequency electrical impedance mammography (EIM) diagnostic system in breast cancer screening

BackgroundSome evidence has shown that malignant breast tumours have lower electrical impedance than surrounding normal tissues. Electrical impedance could be used as an indicator for breast cancer detection. The purpose of our study was to analyse the sensitivity and specificity of electrical impedance mammography (EIM) and its implementation for the differential diagnosis of pathological lesions of the breast, either alone or in combination with mammography/ultrasound, in 1200 women between 25 and 70years old.MethodsThis study is a prospective, cross-sectional epidemiological observational study of serial screening. The women were invited to participate and signed a consent letter. Impedance imaging of the mammary gland was evaluated with the computerized mammography equipment of MEIK electroimpedance v.5.6. (0.5mA, 50kHz), developed and manufactured by PKF SIM-Technika (R). The successful identification of breast cancer along with the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of EIM were determined as follows: % sensitivity; % specificity; % positive predictive value (PPV); and % negative predictive value (NPV).ResultsEIM had a sensitivity of 85% and a specificity of 96%; the positive predictive value was 12%, and the negative predictive value was 99%. Seven cases were biopsy confirmed cancers. Significant correlations between the electrical conductivity index and body mass index (BMI) (p =0.04) and patient age were observed (p =0.01). We also observed that the average conductivity distribution increased according to age group (p =0.001). We used the chi-squared test to assess the interactions between percent density and BMI (normal