Shear wave elastography of the breast‐histopathological comparisons

Abstract

AbstractIntroductionThis study aimed to compare shear wave elastography (SWE) of benign and malignant breast lesions, evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of previously suggested thresholds for identifying malignant breast lesions, and compare SWE measures across histopathological type and grade.MethodsThis single‐centre study included 303 patients, and 405 solid breast lesions were biopsied and evaluated by mammography, which may have included contrast‐enhanced mammography, conventional B‐mode ultrasound, and SWE. Following this, elastography mean (Emean), maximum (Emax), and ratio (Eratio) variables were calculated for elasticity in kilopascals (kPa) and speed in metres per second (m/s).ResultsMalignant (n = 113) samples were significantly higher than benign (n = 267) across all SWE variables [median (interquartile range)]; Emean (kPa) [132.8 (34), vs. 41.9 (53.6), p < .001], Emean (m/s) [6.9 (1), vs. 3.7 (2.2), p < .001]. The highest combined sensitivity and specificity were for Emax (97%, 73%) at >80 kPa, and Emean (96%, 76%) at >5.2 m/s. Histopathological grade 3 (kPa), Emean [145.8 (22.5), p = .012], Emax [147.8 (19.4), p = .009], and Eratio [11.7 (6.6), p = .006] were significantly higher than grades 1 [129.2 (37.3), 133.2 (35.9), 7.53 (4.7)] and 2 [127.3 (36.4), 133.3 (34.2), 8.3 (6.1)].ConclusionBreast elastography is a sensitive complementary technique that can distinguish between malignant and benign lesions and help characterise histological profile and grade.