Ultrasound BI-RADS might need some fine-tuning
Breast cancers missed by mammography could have been misclassified as benign lesions by ultrasound to begin with, according to a study presented at the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine meeting in Orlando in June.
Breast cancers missed by mammography could have been misclassified as benign lesions by ultrasound to begin with, according to a study presented at the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine meeting in Orlando in June.
Dr. Dona J. Hills and colleagues from the Queens-Long Island Medical Group in New York found that 41 cancers matched current BI-RADS 2 and 3 assignments, based on their original ultrasound descriptions. They also found that 23 of the 41 had benign or negative findings on mammography. Physicians should be suspicious about ultrasound-detected lesions with atypical features, which can cause false negatives in mammography as well, Hills said.
"If we exclude suspicious findings from the 'probably benign' category and put them into a BI-RADS 4, we might not be underestimating as many cancers as we had underestimated before," she said.
Newsletter
Stay at the forefront of radiology with the Diagnostic Imaging newsletter, delivering the latest news, clinical insights, and imaging advancements for today’s radiologists.
FDA Expands Approval of MRI-Guided Ultrasound Treatment for Patients with Parkinson’s Disease
July 9th 2025For patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease, the expanded FDA approval of the Exablate Neuro platform allows for the use of MRI-guided focused ultrasound in performing staged bilateral pallidothalamic tractotomy.
