Abstract
Background Radial breast ultrasound scanning (r-US) and commonly used
meander-like ultrasound scanning (m-US) have recently been shown to be equally
sensitive and specific with regard to the detection of breast malignancies. As
patient satisfaction has a strong influence on patient compliance and thus on
the quality of health care, we compare here the two US scanning techniques with
regard to patient comfort during breast ultrasound (BUS) and analyze whether the
patient has a preference for either scanning technique.
Materials and Methods Symptomatic and asymptomatic women underwent both
m-US and r-US scanning by two different examiners. Patient comfort and
preference were assessed using a visual analog scale-based (VAS) questionnaire
and were compared using a Mann-Whitney U test.
Results Analysis of 422 VAS-based questionnaires showed that perceived
comfort with r-US (r-VAS 8 cm, IQR [5.3, 9.1]) was significantly higher compared
to m-US (m-VAS 5.6 cm, IQR [5.2, 7.4]) (p < 0.001). 53.8% of patients had no
preference, 44.3% of patients clearly preferred r-US, whereas only 1.9% of
patients preferred m-US. Conclusion: Patients experience a higher level of
comfort with r-US and favor r-US over m-US. As the diagnostic accuracy of r-US
has been shown to be comparable to that of m-US and the time required for
examination is shorter, a switch from m-US to r-US in routine clinical practice
might be beneficial. R-US offers considerable potential to positively affect
patient compliance but also to save examination time and thus costs.
Keywords
Breast ultrasound - Breast cancer - Radial breast ultrasound - Stress - Quality of life
Bibliographical Record
Pascale Brasier-Lutz, Claudia Jäggi-Wickes, Sabine Schädelin, Rosemarie Burian, Cora-Ann Schoenenberger, Rosanna Zanetti-Dällenbach. Patient perception of meander-like versus radial breast
ultrasound. Ultrasound Int Open 2024; 10: a22829193.
DOI: 10.1055/a-2282-9193
