Evaluation of Sonoelastography in Differentiating Benign and Malignant Soft Tissue Masses

Abstract

To access the value of strain elastography in differentiating benign and malignant soft tissue masses. Soft tissue masses of 100 patients were examined by strain elastography. Elastogram scores(ES) and Strain ratios(SR) were obtained and compared between benign and malignant masses. Sixteen patients were lost to follow-up. Of remained 84 patients, 22 were malignant and 62 were benign. Significantly higher ESs and SRs were observed in the malignant masses than the benign masses (3.32±0.43 vs. 1.73±0.93, P<0.001; 5.84±3.38 vs. 1.92±2.33, P<0.001), AOC area under ; the curve of ES and SR were 0.884 (p<0.001) and 0.915 (P<0.001) respectively. With an ES ≥3 as the optimal cut-off value, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for diagnosing a malignant mass were 100%、71.4%、75.9% and 100% respectively. With a SR value ≥ 2.78 as the optimal cut-off value, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for diagnosing a malignant mass were 88.9%, 76.2%, 61.5%, and 94.1%, respectively. Both SR and ES were significantly different between the malignant and benign soft tissue masses; so strain elastography can be adopted as a high application value to differentiate the malignant and benign soft tissue masses,and it is a new technology which is worth promoting.