[Effect of elastic strain rate ratio method and virtual touch tissue quantification on the diagnosis of breast masses].
OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of elastic strain rate ratio method and virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) on the diagnosis of breast masses.


METHODS
Sixty female patients with breast cancer, who received surgical treatment in Daqing Oilfield General Hospital, were enrolled. All patients signed the informed consent paperwork and they were treated by routine ultrasound examination, compression elastography (CE) examination, and VTQ examination in turn. Strain ratio (SR) was checked by CE and shear wave velocity (SWV) value was measured by VTQ. The diagnostic values of different methods were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves in the diagnosis of benign and malignant breast tumors.


RESULTS
The maximum diameter and SWV value of the benign tumors were lower than those of the malignant tumors, and the SR ratio of benign masses was higher than that of malignant tumors (P<0.01). The AUC, sensitivity and specificity for elastic strain rate and VTQ for single or combined use were higher than those of conventional ultrasound (0.904, 97.5%, 69.2%; 0.946, 87.5%, 87.2%; 0.976, 90%, 97.4% vs 0.783, 85%, 61.5%). The AUC and specificity of VTQ were higher than those of the elastic strain rate (0.946, 87.2% vs 0.904, 69.2%), but the sensitivity of VTQ was higher than that of the latter (87.5% vs 97.5%). The AUC and specificity for combination of both methods were higher than those of single method, but the sensitivity was lower than that of the elastic strain rate.


CONCLUSIONS
Combination of elastic strain rate ratio method with VTQ possesses the best diagnostic value and the highest diagnostic accuracy in the diagnosis of breast mass than that used alone.
Department of Ultrasound, Daqing Oilfield General Hospital, Daqing Heilongjiang 163001, China gonglijie001@sina.com.
LiJie
L
Gong
Department of Ultrasound, Daqing Oilfield General Hospital, Daqing Heilongjiang 163001, China.
Yan
Y
He
Department of Ultrasound, Daqing Oilfield General Hospital, Daqing Heilongjiang 163001, China.
Peng
P
Tian
Department of Ultrasound, Daqing Oilfield General Hospital, Daqing Heilongjiang 163001, China.
Yan
Y
Yan
D001940:Breast; D001943:Breast Neoplasms; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques; D005260:Female; D019220:High-Energy Shock Waves; D006801:Humans; D008866:Microsurgery; D012372:ROC Curve; D014110:Touch