Abstract

Background:Although various imaging modalities are available for evaluating suspicious breast lesions, ultrasound-based Shear-Wave Elastography is an advanced, non-invasive technique complementary to grayscale sonography. This technique evaluates the elasticity of a specific tissue by applying sonic pressure to that tissue.Objective:The aim is to assess the role of Short-Wave Elastography’s in evaluating solid breast masses in correlation to histopathological study results.Subjects and Methods:This prospective study was done in a tertiary care teaching hospital from September 2019 to August 2020. A study population of 50 women aged 18 years or above with an ultrasonographicdiagnosis of solid breast masses was included.Results:A significantly higher value of Short-Wave Elastography’s elasticity ratio (E-mean) was observed in malignant tumors than in benign tumors (p <0.0001). The area-under-curve for the BI-RADS 4 lesions was 0.522 (95% CI, 0.343-0.701) with an E-ratio cut-off score of 85.25, the sensitivity and specificity were 50% for diagnosing malignant tumors, whereas area-under-curve for the histopathological examination study was 1.000 (95% CI, 1.000-1.000) with an E-ratio cut-off score of 134.25; both the sensitivity and specificity were 100% for diagnosing malignant tumors.Conclusions:A well-defined Shear-Wave Elastography elasticity ratio range might help differentiating malignant from benign breast tumors and predict its aggressiveness. Furthermore, Short-Wave Elastography’s correlation with BI-RADS in suspicious lesions adds to histopathology's advantage in distinguishing malignant tumors from benign ones

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The article was added to IASJ on 2024-01-08

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