Qualitative Analysis with Virtual Touch Tissue Imaging & Quantification for Differential Diagnosis of Breast Lesions Compared with Quantitative Analysis

Abstract

To evaluate the diagnostic performance of Virtual Touch Tissue Imaging ＆Quantification (VTIQ) for differential diagnosis of breast lesions, using a new qualitative analysis (i.e. the elasticity score in the travel time map) compared with quantitative analysis. From June 2014 to July 2015, 266 pathologically proven breast lesions were enrolled in this study. The maximum, mean, median, minimum, and standard deviation of shear wave speed (SWS) values (m/s) were assessed. The elasticity score, a new qualitative feature, was evaluated in the travel time map. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curves were plotted to evaluate the diagnostic performance of both qualitative and quantitative analyses for differentiation of breast lesions. Among all quantitative parameters, SWS-max showed the highest AUROC (0.805; 95% CI: 0.752, 0.851) compared with SWS-mean (0.786; 95% CI:0.732, 0.834; P=0.094), SWS-median (0.775; 95% CI:0.720, 0.824; P=0.046), SWS-min (0.675; 95% CI:0.615, 0.731; P=0.000), SWS-SD (0.0738; 95% CI:0.712, 0.817; P=0.074). The AUROC of qualitative analysis in this study obtained the best diagnostic performance (0.871; 95% CI: 0.825, 0.909; P=0.011), compared with the best parameter of SWS-max in quantitative analysis. The new qualitative analysis showed the superior diagnostic performance in the differentiation of breast lesions in comparison with quantitative analysis.