English

Abstract

BACKGROUND We wanted to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of ultrasound elastography in the detection and characterization of various breast masses and study its role in differentiating benign vs malignant breast masses with fine needle aspirarion cytology (FNAC) and/or histopathological correlation of its findings. METHODS A total of 120 patients with breast lesions were prospectively evaluated using ultrasonography (USG) in the Department of Radiodiagnosis at Katihar Medical College, Katihar, Bihar. After procuring consent from the patients, B-mode and elastography examination of all the patients was carried out simultaneously, using the Philips EPIQ 5G ultrasound machine. The findings were noted in a proforma for observation and further comparisons. The usefulness of elastography, regarding prediction of the nature of the mass (benign/malignant), delineation of its exact extent, and correlation with clinical/cytological diagnosis was studied. RESULTS A sensitivity of 97.0% and specificity of 86.7% was observed when a cut off value of 3 was used for elasticity score. A specificity of 95.5% and a sensitivity of 93.3% was observed when a cut off of 3.8 was used for strain ratio (SR). In all cases, the extent of the pathology, the local or contiguous spread and vascular involvement, predicted by ultrasound elastography examination corroborated well with the cytological findings. The results of this study are in concordance with results of studies that have been conducted previously. CONCLUSIONS Ultrasound elastography is a simple and rapid method that can improve the sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonography of focal breast lesions and can decrease the rate of unnecessary biopsies. The diagnostic accuracy of combined ultrasound and elastography is quite high and thus improves the diagnostic confidence of the cases under evaluation. KEYWORDS Elastography, Ultrasound, Focal Breast Lesions