Zonal analysis of 3D ultrasound Doppler quantitative measures for the discrimination of prostate cancer

Quantitative measures obtained from color flow ultrasound have been shown to discriminate cancerous from normal tissue in prostates. Thirtynine patients were previously subjected to 3D Doppler ultrasound scanning. These same patients had undergone radical prostatectomy as a normal part of their treatment. The prostates had been sliced into 3 mm sections and whole mount H and E stained slides were used to determine true cancer locations within the prostates. The prostate data volume were spatially registered with each other for each patient. Ultrasound Doppler measures were calculated within the peripheral zone and the periurethral zone. ROC analysis and histograms were performed on these results. It was previously found that color pixel density in frequency shift (CPD fs) was the best simple discriminator for prostate cancer. However, when the prostate is divided into the peripheral and periurethral zones, the mean velocity in colored pixels (V) actually does a better job in the periurethral zone with an accuracy of 0.88(+/- 0.04). however, only an accuracy of 0.53(+/- 0.04) was found in the peripheral zone for V.