title: Quantification of acoustic radiation force impulse in differentiating between malignant and benign breast lesions.
abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of gray-level quantification (GLQ) in virtual touch tissue imaging (VTI) in the differential diagnosis of breast lesions. GLQ values of 153 lesions (101 benign, 52 malignant) were analyzed with matrix laboratory software (MATLAB, The MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA), with gray levels ranging from 0 (pure black) to 255 (pure white). The diagnostic performance of GLQ was also evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The mean GLQ value for benign lesions (103.27 ± 39.44) differed significantly from that for malignant lesions (44.57 ± 13.61) (p < 0.001). At a cutoff value of 52.31, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 86.5%, 93.1%, 90.8%, 86.5% and 93.1%, respectively. In conclusion, we have proposed a method for quantification of gray levels in VTI for the differential diagnosis of breast lesions. Our results indicate that this method has the potential to aid in the classification of benign and malignant breast masses.
authors: Department of Ultrasound, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China. Electronic address: ultra304@sina.com.
authors: Zhencai
authors: Z
authors: Li
authors: Department of Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors: Junzhong
authors: J
authors: Sun
authors: Department of Interventional Ultrasound, Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors: Jing
authors: J
authors: Zhang
authors: Department of Ultrasound, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors: Dongmei
authors: D
authors: Hu
authors: Department of Ultrasound, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors: Qiong
authors: Q
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Information, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors: Kun
authors: K
authors: Peng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006244:Hardness; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008327:Mammography / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Acoustic radiation force impulse; Breast lesion; Gray level; Quantification; Strain elastography; Ultrasound