Li Jia, Wei Cong, Ying Tao, Liu Yan, Wang Ronghui, Li Maoyao, Feng Chao, Sun Di, Zheng Yuanyi
Department of Ultrasound in Medicine, Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Department of Ultrasound, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Insights Imaging. 2025 Jun 18;16(1):128. doi: 10.1186/s13244-025-02013-6.
We investigated the role of ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) qualitative and quantitative parameters in distinguishing benign from malignant breast lesions.
The ULM qualitative and quantitative parameters of breast lesions were recorded. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to assess the diagnostic performance of ULM. Intra- and inter-operator reliabilities of quantitative parameters were assessed.
Thirty-one breast lesions were verified by pathologic results, 14 of which were benign and 17 were malignant. Benign lesions were associated with dot-like, line-like, or branch-like patterns (93% vs 6%), whereas malignant lesions were associated with chaotic patterns (94% vs 7%) (p < 0.001). The microvasculature morphology had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.935, a sensitivity of 94.1%, and a specificity of 92.9%. The microvasculature density, mean diameter, largest diameter, and max tortuosity of malignant lesions were significantly greater than those of benign lesions (p < 0.05, p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p < 0.05). The microvasculature mean flow velocity of benign lesions was significantly greater than that of malignant lesions (p < 0.05). For the quantitative parameters, the AUC was highest for the microvasculature's largest diameter (0.962), with a sensitivity of 88.2% and a specificity of 92.9%. The intra- and inter-operator reliabilities of quantitative parameters were excellent (ICC greater than 0.90).
ULM is useful for distinguishing benign from malignant breast lesions. ULM can offer a new diagnostic method for breast lesions, which deserves further research.
This study suggests that ULM is a new technology with super-resolution that is helpful for distinguishing benign from malignant breast lesions.
ChiCTR, ChiCTR2100048361. Registered 6 July 2021, https://www.chictr.org.cn/ .
ULM is an emerging technology that can detect highly detailed networks of microvasculature. Microvasculature morphology based on ULM can be a good indicator for the differential diagnosis of breast lesions. Among quantitative parameters extracted from ULM, microvasculature largest diameter was the best for the classification of breast lesions.
我们研究了超声定位显微镜（ULM）定性和定量参数在鉴别乳腺良恶性病变中的作用。
记录乳腺病变的ULM定性和定量参数。应用受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线评估ULM的诊断性能。评估定量参数在操作者内和操作者间的可靠性。
31例乳腺病变经病理结果证实，其中14例为良性，17例为恶性。良性病变与点状、线状或分支状模式相关（93%对6%），而恶性病变与紊乱模式相关（94%对7%）（p<0.001）。微血管形态的曲线下面积（AUC）为0.935，敏感性为94.1%，特异性为92.9%。恶性病变的微血管密度、平均直径、最大直径和最大迂曲度均显著大于良性病变（p<0.05，p<0.001，p<0.001，p<0.05）。良性病变的微血管平均流速显著大于恶性病变（p<0.05）。对于定量参数，微血管最大直径的AUC最高（0.962），敏感性为88.2%，特异性为92.9%。定量参数在操作者内和操作者间的可靠性极佳（组内相关系数大于0.90）。
ULM有助于鉴别乳腺良恶性病变。ULM可为乳腺病变提供一种新的诊断方法，值得进一步研究。
本研究表明，ULM是一种具有超分辨率的新技术，有助于鉴别乳腺良恶性病变。
中国临床试验注册中心，ChiCTR2100048361。于2021年7月6日注册，https://www.chictr.org.cn/ 。
ULM是一种新兴技术，能够检测高度详细的微血管网络。基于ULM的微血管形态可作为乳腺病变鉴别诊断的良好指标。在从ULM提取的定量参数中，微血管最大直径对乳腺病变分类效果最佳。
