Does the menstrual cycle affect the multimodal ultrasound tomography?. (July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Forte, Serafino; Dellas, Sophie; Stieltjes, Bram; Bongartz, Georg
• Is Part Of: Acta radiologica. Volume 60:Number 7(2019)
• Page Start: 846
• Page End: 851
• Publication Date: 2019-07
• Subjects: Breast -- cancer -- ultrasound -- 3D imaging -- multimodal -- menstrual cycle; Radiology, Medical -- Periodicals; Radiography, Medical -- Periodicals; Radiotherapy -- Periodicals; 616.0757
• DOI: 10.1177/0284185118805247
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0284-1851

Abstract

Background: Multimodal ultrasound tomography (MUT) is a promising new three-dimensional imaging technology for breast cancer detection without ionizing radiation or need for tissue compression. It offers an automatic scan of the pendulant whole breast. Purpose: As breast tissue properties are affected by the menstrual cycle (MC), we examined whether there is an objective difference in the refractivity and attenuation images obtained via MUT at different phases of the menstrual cycle. Material and Methods: Thirteen asymptomatic volunteers (age range = 27–44 years) with a regular MC were scanned once weekly for four weeks. Attenuation and refractivity images of the breast coronal slices obtained via MUT are calibrated against precisely controlled water-through values of the ultrasound waves. The average of attenuation and refractivity values measured in the MUT images were calculated for each volunteer every week. Results: During the MC, the weekly averages of the refractivity images for all volunteers were −0.650% (week 1), −0.585% (week 2), −0.692% (week 3), and −0.628% (week 4), and the corresponding attenuation weekly averages were 1.712 dB/cm, 1.635 dB/cm, 1.673 dB/cm, and 1.653 dB/cm. There were no statistically significant changes during MC. Conclusion: Although there are biological changes in breast tissue properties during the MC, we did not observe statistically significant changes in the average values of MUT refractivity and attenuation images in each breast for different weeks of the MC. This finding implies that the diagnostic accuracy of the MUT may not be affected by the timing of the scan during the MC.