J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 93(10): 1330-1336, 1992
Original article
PREOPERATIVE DIAGNOSIS OF INTERNAL MAMMARY NODE METASTASES IN PATIENTS WITH BREAST CANCER BY USING ULTRASONOGRAPHY
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The First Department of Surgery, Kobe City General Hospital, Kobe, Japan Yutaka Konishi, Takashi Hashimoto, Toshitaka Okuno, Yoshikazu Takamine, Tomohiko Tani, Tetehiro Kajiwatra |
The internal mammary area (I.M.A.) in which internal mammary nodes lie was shown as a hypoechoic stripe in a saglttal scan along the sternum and as a triangular or spindle-shaped hypoechoic area in a transverse scan in the intercostal space.
The US features of each I.M.A. in the first three intercostal spaces were divided into three patterns : Pattern-A wad defined as widening of the ipsilateral side of the I.M.A. compared with the contralateral side ; Pattern-C was defined as normal at both sides of the I.M.A.
Pathological examination confirmed the node metastases in 85.7% of intercostal scans showing Pattern-A and in 35% of intercostal scans showing Pattern-B. Only one of 189 intercostal scans showing Pattern-C had nodal metastases.
The overall accuracy was 88.1% in 243 intercostal scans and 90.1% in 81 patients.
We conclude that US is useful in the detection of internal mammary node metastases in patients with breast cancer.
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