Benign Vascular Lesions of the Breast: A Clinical, Radiographic, and Pathologic Review.

Vascular lesions of the breast are uncommon, however, these are increasingly encountered now due to more frequent use of magnetic resonance imaging. They comprise a spectrum of lesions including benign, atypical, and malignant tumors. The prototype is a hemangioma, which is most often nonpalpable and is detected on routine screening. Different histopathologic subtypes of hemangioma have been described, including perilobular, venous, cavernous, and capillary hemangioma. Other benign vascular lesions include anastomosing hemangioma, a well-circumscribed proliferation of anastomosing blood vessels with lobular or diffuse growth pattern which affects a large segment of the breast, presenting as a painless slow enlarging palpable mass. Recent data suggest that benign vascular lesions diagnosed on core needle biopsy with concordant radiologic and pathologic findings do not require excision and have an excellent prognosis, except angiomatosis, which can be locally aggressive and may recur. The main focus of this study is to present the radiographic, gross, and histopathologic characteristics of benign vascular lesions of the breast and their differential diagnoses.

Digital and screen-film mammography: comparison of image acquisition and interpretation times.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to compare acquisition times and interpretation times of screening examinations using screen-film mammography and soft-copy digital mammography. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Technologist study acquisition time from examination initiation to release of the screenee was measured for both screen-film and digital mammography (100 cases each) in routine clinical practice. The total interpretation time for screening mammography was also measured for 183 hard-copy screen-film cases and 181 soft-copy digital cases interpreted by a total of seven breast imaging radiologists, four experienced breast imagers, and three breast imaging fellows. RESULTS: Screening mammography acquisition time averaged 21.6 minutes for screen-film and 14.1 minutes for digital, a highly significant 35% shorter time for digital than screen-film (p < 10(-17)). The average number of images per case acquired with digital mammography was higher than that for screen-film mammography (4.23 for screen-film, 4.50 for digital; p = 0.047). The total interpretation time averaged 1.4 minutes for screen-film mammography and 2.3 minutes for digital mammography, a highly significant 57% longer interpretation time for digital (p < 10(-11)). In addition, technical problems delaying interpretation were encountered in none of the 183 screen-film cases but occurred in nine (5%) of the 181 digital cases. CONCLUSION: Compared with screen-film mammography, the use of digital mammography for screening examinations significantly shortened acquisition time but significantly increased interpretation time. In addition, more technical problems were encountered that delayed the interpretation of digital cases.