The extremity soft-tissue lesion: a comparative study of ultrasound, computed tomography, and xeroradiography.

Twenty-five extremity soft-tissue lesions were evaluated by ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), and xeroradiography (XR). The lesion was detected by CT in 20 of 25 cases. In five cases, a soft-tissue tumor was not identified by CT due to small lesion size, isodensity, or the inability to distinguish scar tissue from recurrent tumor. Of the three modalities, the vascular bundle was most reliably defined by CT. In 20 of 25 cases, the lesion was detected by XR, but the size was accurately determined in only 13 cases.