Vascularity of a breast lump

The aim of this study was to find if Doppler ultrasound of the axillary and lateral thoracic arteries in breast cancer cases would differ from benign breast lesions and normal controls. Two hundred patients with breast lumps were included in the study. Clinical examination, mammography, breast ultrasound and fine needle aspiration or tru-cut biopsies were done for all cases. Breast ultrasound included morphological criteria of lump, lateral thoracic artery (LTA) Doppler, axillary lymph nodes, and axillary artery Doppler. All malignant cases had undergone mastectomy or lumpectomy. Lump size ranged from 1 to 5.1 (2.93 ± 1.6) cm. Eighty one cases were diagnosed as breast cancer and one hundred and nineteen cases were benign conditions. There was no significant difference regarding axillary artery and lump Doppler between the two groups while there was a difference of LTA Doppler with a cut off value of 0.67. Lateral thoracic artery resistance index measured by Doppler ultrasound was significantly lower in the malignant group in this study with a cut off value of 0.67.