Atlas of Full Breast Ultrasonography

This atlas describes and illustrates a novel approach, referred to as full breast ultrasonography (FBU), that represents a challenge to conventional breast imaging diagnosis. The coverage encompasses examination technique, diagnostic criteria, the imaging features of a wide variety of lesions, and role in follow-up. FBU involves anatomic ultrasound scanning based on the ductal echography technique proposed by Michel Teboul, supplemented by Doppler and real-time sonoelastography. The approach offers a variety of advantages. Compared with MRI it has a lower cost, wider availability, better resolution, and improved correlation with anatomy. Compared with mammography it has the benefits of absence of irradiation and pain, applicability in all cases, and better overall accuracy. Furthermore, the standardized technique of acquisition and interpretation means that it is suitable as a screening test, unlike classic ultrasonography. FBU is applicable in ultrasound BI-RADS assessment and is of value in depicting both benign and malignant conditions. It can be recommended as a first-line method of diagnosis and for the follow-up of treated breasts, regardless of the patient's age, sex, or physical condition. 

Aristida Colan-Georges is a senior radiologist with more than 30 years of experience in a County Clinical Emergency Hospital as well as in private imaging services. Dr. Colan-Georges has had a practice in ultrasonography for more than 20 years, during which time she has delivered many postgraduate courses, conducted extensive research activity, presented scientific contributions at international conferences/congresses, and published journal articles, books and book chapters. She holds a PhD in Gynecology for a thesis entitled The Radiological Imaging Diagnosis of Female Infertility of Pelvic Etiology (2006). In 2006 she received the Great Award of the Francophone Congress of Medical Imaging of the South-East European Countries for her work, Le diagnostique radio-imagistique de l'endométriose dans le bilan de l'infertilité féminine. Since meeting Professor Michel Teboul and his disciples in 2004, she has devoted much time and effort to developing and promoting his new anatomic technique of breast ultrasound named ductal echography, which forms the basis for the approach described in this book.