The use of electrical impedance tomography to the differential diagnosis of pathological mammographic/sonographic findings.

Our study involved 870 eligible women with suspected pathological breast lesion discovered by mammography (MMG) or ultrasound examination (USG) which were recommended to pass histological examination to verify the diagnosis. All patients included in our study were divided into two age groups: the 1st group - patients older than 40 years (total of 724 patients) , the 2nd group - patients younger than 40 years (total of 146 patients). The purpose of our study was to analyze the possibilities of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) implementation to the differential diagnosis of pathologic lesions of the breast either solely, or in a combination with MMG/USG. The following results were obtained: in the 1st group the average specificity of MMG was 79.5%; when added EIT the average specificity decreased to 72.8%. The sensitivity of MMG, by contrast, increased from 87.8% when using it as an independent method to 94.5% when added EIT. In the 2nd group the average specificity of USG was 90.2%; when added EIT the average specificity decreased to 86.4%. Similarly, as in the 1st group the sensitivity of USG increased from 86.7% when using it as an independent method to 93.3% when added EIT.Analysis of false-negative results of electrical impedance tomography depending on the stage of the process has shown that as the earlier stage of the disease and as the smaller is the dimensions of the tumor, the higher is the number of false-negative results. In addition, we observed the dependence of the false-negative results of the tumor grade. The results of our study show that the use of EIT in addition to MMG/USG can improve the sensitivity of these methods and to increase the rate of early detection of breast cancer with minimal economic costs and highly qualified staff time expenditures.