Trokhanova O. V., Okhapkin M.B., Korjenevsky A.V., Kornienko V.N., Cherepenin V.A.

Existing methods of mammary glands diagnostics have a number of restrictions in application: subjective character, quality of measuring equipment and qualification of medical personnel (ultrasound), radiation dose and age limits (x-ray mammography), invasive intervention as well as insufficiently developed morphological criterions for proliferative dysplasia and early forms of high differentiated carcinoma (puncture biopsy), the cost of study (magnetic resonance imaging, radioisotope examination). At present there is the possibility of visualization of mammary gland tissue with the help of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) - method of obtaining of spatial distribution of electrical impedance in tissues. The objective of our research is the determination of possibilities of multifrequency electrical impedance tomography method in diagnostics of various diseases of mammary glands.  A brief description of hardware and software of the multifrequency electrical impedance mammography system MEM is given in the paper. The results of examination of 1324 women in the age from 19 to 73 years are presented. Women formed 5 clinical groups: 1 - 309 women without mammary gland pathology, 2 - 770 women having mastopathy, 3 - 174 women having mastalgia, 4 - 48 women having fibroadenoma, 5 - 23 women having cancer of mammary gland. Following diagnostic methods were used: clinical (gaining of anamnesis, medical inspection, palpation), ultrasound investigation of mammary glands, x-ray and electrical impedance mammography, puncture biopsy. Obtained results have been statistically treated with the application of the method of alternative variation with calculation of mean value and standard deviation. The Student-s criterion was used for the reliability estimation.  Peculiarities of electrical impedance images in the cases of norm and most frequently occurring diseases of mammary glands (mastalgia, mastopathy, fibroadenoma, cancer) among women of different age groups are presented. The estimation of mean values of electrical conductivity in the cases of norm and pathology has been carried out, criteria of diagnostics of various non-malignant and malignant diseases of mammary glands are presented.