Breast ultrasound

Breast ultrasound or breast ultrasound uses sound waves to provide a picture of the tissues inside the breast. During breast ultrasound does not use X-rays or other potentially harmful radiation.The breast ultrasound can be viewed in detail within the breast, including the area near the chest wall, which is difficult to analyze by mammography.

Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women worldwide. Early detection, timely breast cancer is extremely important because it can establish appropriate treatment and cancer cells can be eradicated.
Warning signs that should alert any woman to determine consult your doctor to prevent the development or worsening of a potential breast cancer are:

• Presence of breast lumps
• Breast tenderness
• Changing the shape or contour of the breast
• Nipple discharge
• Hardening and peeling nipples

The role of breast ultrasound

The breast ultrasound can add important information to the results of other tests, such as mammography or magnetic resonance imaging because the investigation can provide information that can not be obtained using a mammogram.
A breast ultrasound may be done in any of the following situations:

• When there are symptoms such as pain, swelling, redness in the breast
• When it detects a lump in the breast after self examination or medical examination.
• To ascertain whether a node contains liquid or if the breast is solid. A node that is not liquid or contains floating particles may need more tests.
• To deepen a mammogram abnormalities.
• To analyze breast tissue of younger women because their breast tissue is often more dense and mammography can not provide too many details.
• The technical guidance during insertion of a needle or other instrument to drain a cyst or pus, to yield a sample of breast tissue (biopsy), or guide during surgery of the breast.
• To diagnose the causes of the change in size of a cyst
• To ascertain how far the cancer has spread from the breast
• To verify the health of the breasts if a woman has breast implants or silicone breast high density. In this case, the mammogram can not view certain tissues of the breast

Making breast ultrasound
The patient will be asked to undress clothes at the top of the body and remove any jewelry around his neck. I will apply a gel breast so that the transducer can provide images with sound waves. Image breast tissue can be visualized on a screen and is called a sonogram or ultrasound scan.
Breast ultrasound usually lasts between 15-30 minutes, but could take longer if there will be a biopsy or if it will make a more detailed examination of the breast.
Patient will not be because breast ultrasound results are not relevant, if present an open wound in the breast.

Risks and benefits
Benefits of breast ultrasound are:

• Most types of investigations using ultrasound is noninvasive and painless
• Ultrasound is widely available, easy to use and is less expensive than other imaging methods
• During breast ultrasound does not use ionizing radiation
• Ultrasound scanning gives a clear picture of soft tissues that can not be seen well because of radiography, for example
• Ultrasound provides real-time image, which transforms it into a useful tool for guiding minimally invasive procedures such as biopsy, fine needle aspiration
• Help detect breast ultrasound and breast diangosticarea a disease that can not be interpreted in a properly only by mammography.
• Use of ultrasound is useful for detailed analysis of fat lobules or benign cysts.

Risks – For standard diagnosis made ​​by ultrasound echography no harmful effects on humans are involved.

Results

Breast ultrasound uses sound waves that contribute to the formation of images of tissues inside the breast. Your doctor may perform ultrasound breast immediately after the test, and complete results are generally available in 1-2 days.
If breast ultrasound is normal, your doctor specifies that breast tissue is normal, and if the investigation is done in both breasts, the tissue should have similar appearance.
If breast ultrasound is abnormal, the doctor will indicate the presence of nodules. Fluid-filled nodules were foma uniform and formations which are cysts contain fluid. Once detected nodules and cysts, no further investigations are needed than if the cyst contains particles.

A breast biopsy guided by ultrasound, offers doctor can confirm whether a lump is benign suspect without any surgery. Breast ultrasound can be performed occasionally, instead of mammography, if the persons concerned have less than 30 years or if the woman should not be exposed to radiation because she is pregnant, for example.
A breast ultrasound does not replace mammography, but can be used to verify and analyze a problem diagnosed after mammography. It can also be used for women who have dense breast tissue.
Breast MRI is another type of test that can be used to investigate the health of the breast after surgery or to evaluate dense breast tissue. Breast MRI may be accompanied by mammography and breast ultrasound to analyze mammary nodules.