Breast Sonography: A Review of the indications and findings in Oghara, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Breast sonography is the first line imaging tool for evaluating the symptoms and signs of breast disease. Different symptoms of breast disease will warrant the referral for a breast sonogram. Breast sonography is particularly useful as an imaging tool for young women with “mammographically” dense breast as the sensitivity of mammography for detection of breast cancer is reduced for such age groups. This study aims to review the indications for breast sonography and the pattern of sonographic diagnosis of breast lesions seen in Radiology Department, Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara over a period of 5 years.
Methods: The Radiology request forms and breast ultrasound scan reports of patients who presented to the Radiology department from 2012 to 2016 were retrieved and studied
Results: A total of 240 patients with a mean age of 36.34 ±15.3 were examined during the study period. Females formed 95.2% of the study population while males were 4.8%. The patients were referred for breast sonogram due to varying complaints of lump or mass, pain and nipple discharge etc. Breast mass was the commonest complaint of 183 (68.0%) patients while the commonest provisional and radiological diagnosis of the patients who presented with breast lumps was fibroadenoma which was seen in 65 (27.1%) of the patients. Only one (0.4%) patient was referred for screening.
Conclusion: Lumps in the breast are common symptoms in women warranting referral for breast sonography which should be the first line investigative imaging tool for various complaints of breast diseases in young women.

Key words: Breast, lump, sonography, mammographically dense