title: Diagnostic performances of shear-wave elastography for identification of malignant breast lesions: a meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the performance of shear-wave elastography (SWE) for the differentiation of benign and malignant breast lesions using a meta-analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane library were searched for studies published up to January 2014. The references of retrieved relevant articles were reviewed to identify potential publications. Random-effect meta-analysis was conducted to assess the overall sensitivity and specificity of SWE in the differentiation of breast lesions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 11 articles, including 2424 patients, were included in the present meta-analysis. The summarized sensitivity and specificity of the shear wave elastography performance based on maximum elasticity were 0.93 (95 % CI 0.91-0.95) and 0.81 (95 % CI 0.78-0.83), respectively. For the mean elasticity, the summarized sensitivity and specificity were 0.94 (95 % CI 0.92-0.96) and 0.71 (95 % CI 0.69-0.74), respectively. The summarized sensitivity and specificity were 0.77 (95 % CI 0.70-0.83) and 0.88 (95 % CI 0.84-0.91) for the SD of elasticity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SWE has a high sensitivity and specificity in the differentiation of benign and malignant breast lesions. More large and prospective studies are warranted to further examine the performance of SWE.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ultrasound Diagnosis, Wenzhou Central Hospital, Jiangbin West Rd, Wenzhou, 325000, China, chenlimin_wz@126.com.
authors.forename: Limin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Kezhong
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Minda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Beilei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiaofei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016217:Ultrasonography, Mammary / Q000379:methods*