title: Value of ultrasound elastography in detecting small breast tumors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Detecting small breast tumors is difficult for conventional ultrasound. The goal of this study was to assess the value of ultrasound elastography in characterizing small breast tumors and to compare its sensitivity, specificity and accuracy with conventional ultrasound.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 308 breast tumors less than 2 cm in size from 283 in-hospital patients examined with both conventional ultrasound and ultrasound elastography were retrospectively analyzed. The results were compared to surgical pathology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 104 malignant and 204 benign lesions. The sensitivities of sonography and sonoelastography were similar (P < 0.05), and the sensitivity of the two modalities combined improved remarkably to 97.1%. The mean elastic score of malignant and benign tumors less than 2 cm were 3.76 ± 1.01 and 1.73 ± 0.99, respectively (P < 0.05), and the mean elastic score of the false-negative lesions on conventional ultrasound was 3.61 ± 1.14.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ultrasound elastography in combination with conventional ultrasound can improve the sensitivity for detecting small breast tumors. It is also valuable in detecting small malignant tumors which are difficult to diagnose with conventional ultrasound. Ultrasound elastography can be a useful adjunct to conventional ultrasound in diagnosing small breast tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ultrasound, Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, China.
authors.forename: Li-na
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yong-hong
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult