Breast lesions: quantitative elastography with supersonic shear imaging--preliminary results.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the appearance of breast lesions at quantitative ultrasonographic (US) elastography by using supersonic shear imaging (SSI) and to assess the correlation between quantitative values of lesion stiffness and pathologic results, which were used as the reference standard.


METHODS
This study was approved by the French National Committee for the Protection of Patients Participating in Biomedical Research Programs. All patients provided written informed consent. Conventional US and SSI quantitative elastography were performed in 46 women (mean age, 57.6 years; age range, 38-71 years) with 48 breast lesions (28 benign, 20 malignant; mean size, 14.7 mm); pathologic results were available in all cases. Quantitative lesion elasticity was measured in terms of the Young modulus (in kilopascals). Sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve were obtained by using a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to assess diagnostic performance.


RESULTS
All breast lesions were detected at SSI. Malignant lesions exhibited a mean elasticity value of 146.6 kPa +/- 40.05 (standard deviation), whereas benign ones had an elasticity value of 45.3 kPa +/- 41.1 (P < .001). Complicated cysts were differentiated from solid lesions because they had elasticity values of 0 kPa (no signal was retrieved from liquid areas).


CONCLUSIONS
SSI provides quantitative elasticity measurements, thus adding complementary information that potentially could help in breast lesion characterization with B-mode US.
Athanasiou
Alexandra
A
Department of Radiology, Institut Curie, 26 rue d'Ulm, Paris Cedex 05, France. alexandra.athanasiou@curie.net
Tardivon
Anne
A
Tanter
Mickael
M
Sigal-Zafrani
Brigitte
B
Bercoff
Jeremy
J
Deffieux
Thomas
T
Gennisson
Jean-Luc
JL
Fink
Mathias
M
Neuenschwander
Sylvia
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity