By Dr T.V. Bartolotta & Dr A.A.M. Orlando
Breast ultrasound (US) is a widespread imaging tool, often used as an adjunct to mammography with the aim of characterizing focal breast lesions (FBLs), in order to improve cancer detection rates and to reduce the number of false negatives in breast cancer diagnosis. However, breast US requires extensive experience, making it an extremely operator-dependent procedure which yields lower reproducibility, specificity and positive predictive value than mammography.