Ultrasound Detection of Microcalcifications in Surgical Breast Specimens

The objective was to evaluate a commercial image processing technique (MicroPure, Canon Medical Systems, Tustin, CA, USA) for detection of microcalcifications in breast surgical specimens. Twenty women scheduled for surgical excision of an area with breast calcifications were enrolled, their surgical specimens underwent grayscale ultrasound (US) and MicroPure examination using an Aplio XG scanner (Canon). Four independent and blinded readers analyzed 54 US and 54 MicroPure digital clips to determine the number of calcifications and scored image quality and artifacts on a 10-point scale. All readers saw significantly more microcalcifications with MicroPure than with US, 14.0 ± 12.0 versus 3.0 ± 3.2 (p <0.0001). Three readers preferred MicroPure image quality over that of US (p <0.009) and vice versa for one reader (p = 0.003). Three readers saw fewer Cooper's ligament artifacts with MicroPure than with US (p <0.0001); one reader saw no significance difference between them (p = 0.58). In conclusion MicroPure identified more breast microcalcifications than grayscale US in ex vivo surgical breast specimens.