Ultrasound elastography: How can it help in differentiating breast lesions?

Abstract

Introduction: Elastography is considered a non-invasive imaging modality which determines the tumors according to their stiffness. Strain images representing the stiffness of the lesions compared to that of the surrounding normal tissue. Purpose: To prospectively evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the real-time sonoelastography together with B-mode US for distinguishing benign from malignant breast lesions. Methods: The study was conducted on 80 patients, each patient was subjected to complete history taking, thorough clinical examination. All patients had conventional US and elastography using Hitachi 7.5 MHz linear probe (Hitachi hi vision avirus ultrasound), while only in 68 patients mammography was done. Results: Among the 80 patients, sensitivity and specificity of the elastography test of breast lesions according to the elastography score were 80% and 80.95% respectively, while sensitivity and specificity of conventional B mode US were 80% and 76% respectively and the combined B mode US and US elastography showed higher sensitivity and specificity of 86.6% and 90.4% respectively. Conclusion: Elastography is a non-invasive imaging technique which is done in the same session of ultrasound in an attempt to increase and improve the accuracy of diagnostic efficiency of ultrasound. Keywords: Sonoelastography (SE), Breast cancer, Ultrasound, Strain ratio (SR)