Ultra-High Frequency Ultrasound in Melanoma Management: A New Combined Ultrasonographic-Histopathological Approach.
J Ultrasound Med
; 42(1): 99-108, 2023 Jan.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36117417
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
The main aim of this study is to evaluate the correspondence between the ultrasonographic thickness and the Breslow thickness in melanoma using ultra-high frequency ultrasound and the intra- and inter-operator repeatability in the ultrasonographic measurements of melanoma depth. Moreover, we propose a new protocol based on a combined ultrasonographic-histopathological approach.METHODS:
We analyzed 27 melanomas in a population consisted of 27 patients (mean age 57.6 years, 51.8% males), who came at the Department of Dermatology (University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy) from April 2016 to March 2018 and had an ultrasonographic examination of a suspected lesion before the surgical removal using ultra-high frequency ultrasound (Vevo®MD, Fujifilm, Visualsonics, Toronto, Canada; 70 MHz probe). B-mode images were analyzed by two skilled and blinded operators, and the maximum depth of the lesions was measured using a dedicated graphical user interface developed in Matlab R2016b (MathWorks Inc., Natick, MA), to obtain repetitive measurements.RESULTS:
All melanomas appeared as band-like or oval/fusiform shaped hypoechoic inhomogeneous lesions. We observed an excellent agreement between the Breslow thickness of melanomas and the ultrasonographic thickness, as well as a reduced intra- and inter-operator variability in the ultrasonographic measurements of melanoma depth.CONCLUSIONS:
We propose a ultrasonographic-histopathological protocol which may help clinicians to reduce the diagnostic delay, improve prognosis and survival rates, perform a surgical excision with negative margins, and reduce the variability in the assessment of Breslow thickness.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Skin Neoplasms
/
Melanoma
Type of study:
Guideline
/
Screening_studies
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
J Ultrasound Med
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Italy