- Academic Editor
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†These authors contributed equally.
Background: The preoperative diagnosis of pathologic nipple discharge
(PND) in clinical settings remains challenging. Computed tomography-galactography
virtual endoscopy (CT-G VE) was used for the intracavity imaging of discharging
lactiferous ducts in a three-dimensional space, and the diagnostic performance of
CT-G VE was compared with that of ultrasonography and galactography.
Methods: This study included 41 patients with single-orifice PND who
underwent ultrasonography, galactography, and CT-G VE before surgery. The
postoperative histopathologic results were regarded as the gold standard for
diagnosis. Qualitative data were analyzed using Fisher’s precision probability
test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed for
ultrasonography, galactography, and CT-G VE to evaluate their diagnostic
performances for the detection of PND diseases. Results: CT-G VE
provided clear intracavity images of the discharging lactiferous ducts. The
results of CT-G VE could be divided into five categories: negative,
polypoid-solitary, polypoid-multiple, combined, and superficial types. The types
were related to the histopathologic results. The detection ability of CT-G VE for
high-risk and malignant lesions was higher than that of ultrasonography
(p = 0.0056) and galactography (p = 0.0008). The detection
abilities of CT-G VE alone and CT-G VE combined with ultrasonography were
comparable. The cut-off point for CT-G VE was the polypoid-solitary type. The
average effective dose for a single patient undergoing both chest CT and CT-G VE
at the same time was 1.66