A comparative study on superb microvascular imaging and conventional ultrasonography in differentiating BI-RADS 4 breast lesions

This prospective study aimed to explore the diagnostic value of superb microvascular imaging (SMI) in differentiating Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) 4 breast lesions compared with conventional ultrasonography (US). A total of 111 patients with 116 breast lesions underwent grayscale ultrasound (US), colour Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) and SMI breast imaging between February 2016 and May 2018. CDFI and SMI were performed to evaluate vascular quantity, morphology, and distribution characteristics. The detection of malignancy was compared between grayscale US alone, US + CDFI and US + SMI in terms of the BI-RADS stratification system. SMI was observed to be significantly more accurate in distinguishing malignant breast lesions (86.67%) compared with CDFI (80.00%) (P