O. Raneta and colleagues conducted a study in 2012 to analyze the possibilities of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) implementation to the differential diagnosis of pathologic lesions of the breast either solely, or in a combination with MMG/USG. A group 870 eligible women with suspected pathological breast lesion discovered by mammography (MMG) or ultrasound examination (USG) which were recommended to pass histological examination to verify the diagnosis. The sensitivity of MMG increased from 87.8% when using it as an independent method to 94.5% when added EIT. The sensitivity of USG increased from 86.7% when using it as an independent method to 93.3% when added EIT. The results of study show that the use of EIT in addition to MMG/USG can improve the sensitivity of these methods and to increase the rate of early detection of breast cancer with minimal economic costs and highly qualified staff time expenditures.
Daglar G and colleagues conducted a study in 2016 to compare the usefulness of the breast electrical conductivity measures performed in a surgical examination room against conventional breast screening modalities for identifying the symptomatic lesions of the breast tissue. A group of 181 patients were examined with Ultrasonography (USG), Mammography (MG), Electrical Impedance Scanning (EIS) modalities and were followed-up 24 months to clarify in terms of the lesion tumour progression relationship. EIS exhibited compatible sensitivity (81.2 %), accuracy (84.6 %) and PPV (81.8 %) rates with USG in BI-RADS 4 subgroup, combination of these modalities raised sensitivity rates to 92.31 %, accuracy and PPV to 100 %. EIS results in BI-RADS 3 subgroup were pointed out 77.8 % specificity and 87.5 % NPV rates. Breast electrical impedance measures should be useful to reduce the number of the unnecessary follow-up and biopsy rates in the clinical setting.
Xu Feng и and colleagues conducted a study in 2017 to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) for benign and malignant breast diseases incomparison to conventional ultrasonography and mammography. A total of 121 patients with 126 breast lesions who underwent mammography ultrasonography and EIT were enrolled in the study. All of these lessions were were confirmed by pathological biopsy. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of EIT, ultrasonography and mammography were calculated with histology as the gold standard. The accuracy of EIT, ultrasonography and mammography were 75.4%, 81.7% and 76.1% respectively. The sensitivity was 76.8%, 94.6% and 74.4% respectively. The specificity was 74.3%, 71.4% and 77.6% respectively. The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of EIT combined with ultrasound in diagnosis of breast lesions were 91.3%, 98.2% and 85.7%, respectively. The accuracy(χ2=4.896, P=0.027) and specificity(χ2=4.242, P=0.039) ere significantly higher on EIT compared to ultrasound. The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of EIT combined with mammography were 95.5%, 97.4% and 93.9%, respectively, which were significantly higher than those of mammography (χ2=13.474, P<0.001; χ2=8.573, P=0.003; χ2=5.333, P=0.021).When together with ultrasound or mammography, electrical impedance tomography (EIT) could be a valuable complementary examination in the diagnosis of breast diseases. Furthermore, EIT could provide very useful additional information for metabolic assessment of mammary glands, which may be used for early screening of breast diseases.
Blanca Murillo-Ortiz and colleagues conducted a study in 2019 to know the effectiveness of the Electrical Impedance Mammography for the detection of Mammary carcinoma in 615 women from 25 to 70 years of age. The sensitivity and Specificity of the Electro Impedance Mammography (MEIK) was 85% and 97% respectively.
Operational characteristics of electroimpedance mammography (sensitivity and specificity) were defined in a survey conducted in large oncological centres with limited sampling, in the so-called ‘high prevalence group’, using a referential method (X-ray mammography) and confirmed diagnoses. The acquired operational characteristics may be spread on large groups of patients with low prevalence and be used for the planning of screening examinations