High-resolution color-Doppler ultrasound for the study of skin growths

Abstract

the difference between variables was analyzed with statistical Chi square test or Fisher's when appropriate. The strength of the relationship between variables was analyzed with Pearson's r coefficient. The sensitivity and specificity of US tests were also calculated. Sixty-five malignant lesions and 39 benign lesions were identified at Doppler US. In the 34 melanomas, typical US and vascular patterns were identified depending on the thickness of the lesion and a strong correlation between the latter and Breslow index was confirmed. Doppler US is a valuable diagnostic tool for the study of skin and for pre-excision characterization of skin lesions.

Doppler ultrasound and strain elastography in the assessment of cutaneous melanoma: preliminary results

“…Since it has been proven that hypervascularization is a bad prognostic factor [12,20] and we have proved that there is a positive correlation between the stiffness and degree of vascularization, our results suggest that the stiffness of the tumor represents a negative prognostic factor. However, it is necessary to analyze a larger group of patients and their clinical outcome to assess the extent to which the stiffness is an independent predictor of unfavorable evolution.…”

“…Catalano et al [11] demonstrated that the presence of intratumoral vessels is correlated with the Breslow index and with patient survival. Di Santolo et al [20] found intratumoral vessels in 24/34 of lesions with thickness greater than 1 mm. We obtained no statistical differences when comparing the Breslow index with the three classes of vascularization but a post hoc test identified that the Breslow index is significantly higher in lesions with hypervascularization compared to those with low vascularity.…”

“…Doppler US is used to assess the vascularization of the skin tumors before surgical excision, high vascularization being correlated with an important risk of metastasis [17][18][19][20]. The thickness of CM lesions represents a very important element for preoperative management and prognosis, being correlated with the risk of metastasis or relapsing, as well [11,12,21,22].…”

Proposal for an Assessment Training Program in Dermatologic Ultrasound by the DERMUS Group

“…Dermatologic ultrasound has been growing rapidly in line with the development of more potent machines and high‐frequency probes. So far, this application has covered a wide and common range of dermatologic conditions that include benign and malignant tumors, vascular anomalies, inflammatory diseases, nail and scalp disorders, and cosmetic conditions 1 – 6 …”

Toward in vivo biopsy of melanoma based on photoacoustic and ultrasound dual imaging with an integrated detector

“…In trained hands, dermoscopy was used to evaluate the characteristics of pigmented lesions of melanoma, since only ballistic regime can be imaged, the measurement of the thickness of melanoma was confined [11]. With good penetration depth, sonography was demonstrated to be a useful tool in the preoperative detection of thickness of malignant melanoma [12][13][14][15]. However, the examination accuracy rate is low in the detection of early-stage melanoma because of the poor definition at shallow levels [16,17].…”