To Evaluate The Role Of Shear Wave Sonoelastography In Characterization Of Solid Breast Lesions And To Correlate With Histopathologic Findings

Abstract

Background: Sonoelastography is increasingly used in the evaluation of breast lesions in recent years. Sonoelastography is a novel technique that allows to categorizing grayscale images obtained in the B-mode US in color scales by elasticity level.

Aim of the study : To evaluate the role of shear wave sonoelastography in characterization of solid breast lesions and to correlate with histopathologic findings.

Materials  and methods: A Cross-sectional study was conducted in the  Department of Radiodiagnosis, at  Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research  Institute, Chennai in patients with complains of breast lump, mastalgia, nipple discharge, nipple retraction for duration of  18 months.

Results : Age distribution varied from18 years to 60 years. Majority noted among 41-50 years constituting 50.9% and next common age group was 51-60 years accounting 15.4%.On SWE the average Emax in malignant tumors and borderline phyllodes tumor groups was significantly higher than that in benign lesions respectively; dark blue E color noted in 38 cases (34.5%) followed by Red color in 32 cases (29%), very homogenous in 49 cases ( 44.5%) followed by heterogenous in 37 cases (33.6%). Majority noted are round in shape with 45.4% followed by irregular in 39.0% cases. On Histopathology examination 70.9% cases reported as Benign and 29.0% cases as malignant.Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that the use of elastography improved the sensitivity in differentiating benign from malignant lesions, which increased from 75.5% to 95.8%.