Breast mass detection by US: a phantom study.

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Abstract
Phantoms were used to compare imaging of various masses in the glandular region for 2 types of breasts. In 1 type, normal glandular tissue contains no fat clumps; in the other type, randomly distributed spherical fat clumps exist. The size distribution and number of fat clumps per unit volume in the phantoms represented those found in actual normal glandular tissue. For a 5-cm path length between the scanning window of the phantom and the centers of the masses, the presence of the fat clumps caused distortions and deviations of the beam, resulting in image distortion. This degradation was reduced when successive slabs of the material containing the fat clumps were removed. Image degradation appeared to be less severe when a 2.25 (rather than a 3.5) MHz transducer was used. The thickness of tissue containing fat clumps between the scanning transducer and a mass plays a role in the detectability of masses and diagnostic usefulness of the image of a breast. Imaging of the breast in the compressed configuration should be performed regardless of whether the freely suspended breast is imaged. Also, transducers of lower nominal frequency may have an important role in breast imaging.

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