Elastography evaluation of benign and malignant breast lesions with histopathological data

TL;DR

This study shows that strain elastography can accurately distinguish between benign and malignant breast lesions using strain ratios.

Contribution

The study introduces a cutoff strain ratio of ≥3.0 for improving diagnostic accuracy in breast lesion evaluation.

Findings

Strain elastography showed significantly higher strain ratios in malignant compared to benign breast lesions.

A strain ratio cutoff of ≥3.0 achieved 87.1% sensitivity and 90.9% specificity in lesion classification.

Elastography findings strongly correlated with histopathological results.

Abstract

Breast cancer remains a major health challenge and distinguishing benign from malignant breast lesions is essential to prevent
unnecessary procedures and ensure timely treatment. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the diagnostic performance of strain
elastography in 181 patients with breast lesions. Strain elastography demonstrated significantly higher strain ratios in malignant
lesions than benign ones, with a cutoff of ≥3.0 yielding high sensitivity (87.1%) and specificity (90.9%). A strong correlation was
observed between elastography findings and histopathology. Strain elastography offers high diagnostic accuracy and can effectively
complement routine ultrasound to improve breast lesion characterization.