title: Diagnostic value of virtual touch tissue imaging quantification for benign and malignant breast lesions with different sizes.
abstract: The study was to explore diagnostic value of the virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) in distinguishing benign and malignant breast lesions of variable sizes. We performed conventional ultrasound and VTIQ in 139 breast lesions. The lesions were categorized into three groups according to size (group 1, ≤ 10 mm; group 2, 10-20 mm; and group 3, > 20 mm), and their mean, min, and max shear wave velocities (SWVs) were measured. Diagnoses were confirmed by pathological examination after surgery or needle biopsy. Receiver-operating characteristic curves (ROC) were constructed to determine the optimum cut-off values, calculate the area under curve (AUC), the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for each velocity. For all groups, the mean, min, and max SWVs of malignant lesions were significantly higher than those of benign lesions (P < 0.05). The cut-off values of mean, min, and max SWVs were not significantly different among the three groups. In addition, the diagnostic performance of mean, min, and max SWV values is analogous, regardless of lesion size. In conclusion, VTIQ is a strong complement to conventional ultrasound, which is a promising method in the differential diagnosis of the breast lesions with different sizes. Further studies validate our results as well as reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies, regardless of size is warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Ultrasound, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine Shanghai 200072, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Ultrasound, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine Shanghai 200072, China.
authors.forename: Li-Xia
authors.initials: LX
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Ultrasound, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine Shanghai 200072, China.
authors.forename: Guang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Ultrasound, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine Shanghai 200072, China.
authors.forename: Ming-Hua
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Statistics, Tongji University School of Medicine Shanghai 200072, China.
authors.forename: Ai-Hong
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Ultrasound, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine Shanghai 200072, China.
authors.forename: Hui-Xiong
authors.initials: HX
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Ultrasound, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine Shanghai 200072, China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wu
keywords: Diagnostic value; breast lesions; different sizes; virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ)