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Breast ultrasound is currently being used in clinical practice as an adjunct to mammography for the diagnosis of breast cancer in women over the age of thirty. It may also be used as the primary diagnostic test for high-risk women under the age of thirty and in women with fibrocystic breasts. Ultrasound is better able to penetrate dense breast tissue. It works by sending high frequency sound waves through the breast tissues and, upon its return, electronically converting them into visual images. It is a comfortable, typically non-invasive procedure.
Breast ultrasound is excellent at imaging cysts: round, fluid-filled pockets inside the breast. Additionally, ultrasound can often quickly determine if a suspicious area is indeed a cyst (non-cancerous) or an increased density of solid tissue, which may require a biopsy. Ultrasound may also be used to prove whether a suspicious area is a lymph node. Ultrasound cannot determine whether a solid lump is cancerous, nor can it detect calcifications.
Physicians also use ultrasound to guide biopsy needles precisely to suspicious areas of the breast without radiation exposure. All suspicious lumps should be biopsied for a definitive diagnosis. It is estimated that over 48 million mammograms are performed each year and that more than 1,000,000 of them (2.1%) are recalled to undergo a biopsy.
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