Combining ultrasonography and mammography to improve diagnostic accuracy of plasma cell mastitis

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic value of ultrasonography and mammography for plasma cell mastitis. METHODS: The ultrasonographic and mammographic images of 111 women with histopathologically confirmed plasma cell mastitis were retrospectively analyzed. The diagnostic accuracy of the two imaging methods was compared. RESULTS: Ultrasonography identified 91 out of 111 (82.0%) patients with plasma cell mastitis, while the other twenty (18.0%) patients were misdiagnosed. Mammography identified 83 (74.8%) out of 111 patients with plasma cell mastitis. Nineteen (17.1%) patients were misdiagnosed. There was no significant difference between the diagnostic accuracy of using two imaging tests (P = 0.127). Mammography clouds identified 11 out of 20 patients who were not diagnosed by ultrasonography. Meanwhile, 19 of the 28 cases misdiagnosed with mammography were correctly identified by ultrasonography. Overall, 91.9% (102/111) of the patients were identified by the combination of ultrasonography and mammography, which yielded statistically significant higher accuracy than using each single test only (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In diagnosis of plasma cell mastitis, high-frequency ultrasonography and mammography should be combined to improve the diagnostic accuracy.