Ultrasound of soft tissue tumors

Abstract

This chapter illustrates how ultrasound is currently used in imaging soft tissue tumors and also details the advantages and drawbacks of this modality. In daily practice ultrasound is a powerful tool for differentiating a lot of benign tumors (neurogenic tumors, superficial lipoma) and tumor-like lesions (cysts, ganglia, scars, synovial chondromatosis, lipoma arborescens, etc.) from real tumors.Greyscale imaging, as well as (power) Doppler vascular imaging and dynamic interpretation plays an important role in the recognition of potentially malignant lesions. By differentiating benign from potentially malignant lesions, further diagnostic and therapeutic work up may be reorientated in the majority of cases.Dynamic on-line interpretation of the examination is self-evident. Diagnosis on the basis of hard copies alone is erroneous. The use of ultrasound- guided aspiration (FNAB) or core biopsy (CNB) is emphasized and new applications described that are being developed in the field of dermatology. Specificity of ultrasound characterization of benign cases is higher than malignant cases. Thus the appearance of the most common, benign soft tissue tumors on ultrasound images is briefly discussed and documented. © 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.