Aims and objectives
Ultrasound is a common and non-invasive tool,
used to observe the morphological features of breast lesions,
often used as a complementary technique for mammography.
US has two major disadvantages: many solid breast lesions are indeterminate at last and required biopsy,
because of US was not adequately specific in differentiating benign from malignant solid breast masses,
and it is a technique which depends on the operator experience.
Elastography is a new advance in US technology developed in recent years,
with the aim to evaluate nodule elastic...
Methods and materials
Between January and February 2014,
conventional US and elastography were performed in 22 women who had been scheduled to undergo a ultrasound guided core biopsy or FNAC.
A total of 24 lesions were evaluated with both elastographic and B-mode US,
using a 5–13 MHz linear-array transducer.
All the examinations were performed by two radiologists with different experience in breast US and elastography (first: operator with low experience; second: skilled operator).
Two radiologists performed sequentially US and elastography acquisition; each operator was blinded to results of...
Results
A total of 22 women (aged: 29-76 years old) were enrolled in the current study; 24 lesions were examined and finally used for statistical analysis.
The benign lesions sizes determined on B-mode images ranged from 7.4 mm to 30.5 mm (mean: 13.5 mm),
while the malignancies sizes ranged from 3.8 mm to 24.8 mm (mean: 9.9 mm).
Breast nodules evaluated were predominantly localized in the upper-outer quadrant (11 lesions).
Histological findings showed 13 benign and 11 malignant lesions.
Figures 3-4 Among benign lesions,
there were...
Conclusion
Aim of elastography is to improve performance of conventional B-mode ultrasound and enhance specificity and accuracy in the diagnosis of breast masses,
particularly in questionable cases,
with an examination improve of not more than 5 minutes.
According with our data,
the ASR showed similar results compared to manual acquisition and could therefore be useful,
allowing a sharp reduction of acquisition time.
Future clinical indications can include evaluation of palpable abnormalities and characterization of masses detected at mammography and US imaging,
giving information about elasticity features....
References
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In vivo real-time freehand palpation imaging.
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Itoh A,
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Tohno E et al.
Breast disease: clinical application of US elastography...