Breast ultrasound is the use of

medical ultrasonography Medical ultrasound includes diagnostic techniques (mainly imaging techniques) using ultrasound, as well as therapeutic applications of ultrasound. In diagnosis, it is used to create an image of internal body structures such as tendons, mus ...

to perform imaging of the

breast The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and sec ...

. It can be considered either a

diagnostic Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine "cause and effect". In systems enginee ...

or a

screening Screening may refer to: * Screening cultures, a type a medical test that is done to find an infection * Screening (economics), a strategy of combating adverse selection (includes sorting resumes to select employees) * Screening (environmental), ...

procedure. It may be used either with or without a mammogram. It may be useful in younger women, where the denser fibrous tissue of the breast may make mammograms more difficult to interpret.

Automated whole-breast ultrasound Automated whole-breast ultrasound (AWBU) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to obtain volumetric ultrasound data of the entire breast. How it works Similarly to the 3D ultrasound technique used for pregnant women, AWBU allows vol ...

(AWBU) is an ultrasound investigation of the breast that is largely independent of the operator skill and that allows the reconstruction of volumetric images of the breast. Using high-frequency ultrasound, a diagnostic evaluation of the

lactiferous duct Lactiferous ducts are ducts that converge and form a branched system connecting the nipple to the lobules of the mammary gland. When lactogenesis occurs, under the influence of hormones, the milk is moved to the nipple by the action of smooth mus ...

s by means of ultrasound (duct sonography) can be performed. In this manner, dilated ducts and intraductal masses can be made visible. Another technique for visualizing the system of lactiferous ducts is

galactography Galactography or ductography (or ''galactogram'', ''ductogram'') is a medical diagnostic procedure for viewing the milk ducts. The procedure involves the radiography of the ducts after injection of a radiopaque substance into the duct system throug ...

, which allows a wider area of the lactiferous duct system to be visualized. A type of ultrasound examination to measure tissue stiffness, which is used to detect tumours, is

elastography Elastography is any of a class of medical imaging modalities that map the elastic properties and stiffness of soft tissue.Sarvazyan A, Hall TJ, Urban MW, Fatemi M, Aglyamov SR, Garra BSOverview of elastography–an emerging branch of medical im ...

. Breast ultrasound is also used to perform

fine-needle aspiration Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is a diagnostic procedure used to investigate lumps or masses. In this technique, a thin (23–25 gauge (0.52 to 0.64 mm outer diameter)), hollow needle is inserted into the mass for sampling of cells that, aft ...

biopsy and ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration of

breast abscess Mastitis is inflammation of the breast or udder, usually associated with breastfeeding. Symptoms typically include local pain and redness. There is often an associated fever and general soreness. Onset is typically fairly rapid and usually occurs ...

es. Some women prefer breast ultrasound over mammography because they dislike the pain felt during squeezing or fixing of breast done during mammography for X-ray views. Breast ultrasound is painless procedure. Breast ultrasound is usually done with frequency 7 Megahertz to 14 Megahertz. Breast ultrasound includes ultrasound of axillary tail of breast and sometime it includes ultrasound of axillae also to detect abnormal nodes in axilla because lymphatic drainage of parts of breast occur through axillary lymph nodes.

References

Breast imaging Diagnostic obstetrics and gynaecology Medical ultrasonography {{med-diagnostic-stub