Abstract
Elastrography used in addition to grey scale sonography increases its specificity. Elasticity contrast index (ECI) is based on strain elastrography and being a quantitative parameter, maybe more easy to obtain and reproducible while researches has been done in ECI in thyroid lesions, this is the first study, to the best of our knowledge to evaluate in breast lesions. This study was done to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Elasticity Contrast Index (ECI) in differentiating benign from malignant lesions of breast and to determine its cutoff value. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study done at tertiary health care centre, which involved retrospective evaluation of data collected from September 2016 to March 2017. Conventional sonography was done followed by elastography on commercially available ultrasound machine. ECI was calculated in thyroid protocol available in the unit. Histopathological diagnosis was obtained for all the lesions and taken as gold standard. A total of 89 breast lumps were evaluated, of which was 61 (69.3%) were benign and 27 (30.7%) malignant on histopathology. Independent t test revealed the average ECI value of benign lesions was 2.48 and malignant 5.1. Receiver operating curve showed ECI value of 3.25 as the cutoff, above which the lesions were malignant. ECI is a quantitative elastography technique which can be easily used as an adjunct during breast sonography and can increase its specificity for diagnosing a lesion as malignant. This could reduce the number of false positive biopsies.
Highlights
Elastrography used in addition to grey scale sonography increases its specificity
In this study we evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Elasticity Contrast Index (ECI) in evaluating benign and malignant breast lesions and determine its cutoff value for malignant lesion
Grey scale sonography has high sensitivity of more than 94% for malignant breast lesions, but is limited by a relatively low specificity varying from 40-83%
Summary
Elasticity contrast index (ECI) is based on strain elastrography and being a quantitative parameter, maybe more easy to obtain and reproducible while researches has been done in ECI in thyroid lesions, this is the first study, to the best of our knowledge to evaluate in breast lesions. This study was done to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Elasticity Contrast Index (ECI) in differentiating benign from malignant lesions of breast and to determine its cutoff value. The specificity of grey scale sonography can be increased by adding elastographic techniques to the conventional technique, limiting aspiration biopsies to the more suspicious lesions.[1] Most of the previously performed studies are based on qualitative and semi-quantitative elastographic evaluation using strain score or ratio which may have greater inter and intra-observer variability. In this study we evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of ECI in evaluating benign and malignant breast lesions and determine its cutoff value for malignant lesion
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