Abstract: Objective To study the value of 3 different imaging methods in the early diagnosis of breast cancer and differential diagnosis of benign versus malignant nature of breast tumors. Methods Three hundred and ten patients with breast disease seen from 2004 to 2008 were randomly selected in this study. Diagnosis of all the patients were confirmed by means of surgery and pathological examinations, and all the patients were examined by high frequency ultrasound and mammography before operation. Using the results of pathologic examination as the gold standard, the authors compared the result of high frequency ultrasound with that of mammography, and compared the result of any one method with the combined results of the other two. The authors also reviewed the results of 20 patients with breast carcinoma in whom magnetic resonance imaging was additionally applied to see its value in the diagnosis on breast carcinoma. Results The rate of consistency of the ultrasound on diagnosing breast carcinoma was 85 percent, while that of breast benign disease was 89.5 percent. The rate of consistency of the mammography on diagnosing breast carcinoma was 86 percent, while that of breast benign disease was 83.8 percent. The ultrasound could identify 85 of the 100 cases with breast carcinoma. While the mammography could make diagnosis for 86 of 100 patients with breast carcinoma. The combination of the both could make diagnosis for 95 of the 100 patients with breast carcinoma. In the 20 patients with breast carcinoma who were examined by magnetic resonance imaging, the accordance rate for diagnosis with the combination of the three was 100 percent. Though no significant difference in the diagnostic accuracy was found between the ultrasound and the mammography, the combination of the both could greatly elevate the diagnosis accuracy. Conclusion 1 The combination of mammography and high frequency ultrasound can be the first choice of methods to diagnose breast carcinoma in the early stage; 2 MRI can be a good supplement to mammography and high frequency ultrasound; 3 Mammography has great importance in diagnosing breast precancerosis-breast atypical hyperplasia, it is a much better method to diagnose breast atypical hyperplasia.

Key words: breast disease, breast carcinoma, breast atypical hyperplasia, high frequency ultrasound, mammography