Rationale and Objectives
To investigate if anisotropy at two-dimensional shear wave elastography (SWE) suggests
malignancy and whether it correlates with prognostic and predictive factors in breast
cancer.
Materials and Methods
Study group A of 244 solid breast lesions was imaged with SWE between April 2013 and
May 2014. Each lesion was imaged in radial and in antiradial planes, and the maximum
elasticity, mean elasticity, and standard deviation were recorded and correlated with
benign/malignant status, and if malignant, correlated with conventional predictive
and prognostic factors. The results were compared to a study group B of 968 solid
breast lesions, which were imaged in sagittal and in axial planes between 2010 and
2013.
Results
Neither benign nor malignant lesion anisotropy is plane dependent. However, malignant
lesions are more anisotropic than benign lesions (P ≤ 0.001). Anisotropy correlates with increasing elasticity parameters, breast imaging-reporting
and data system categories, core biopsy result, and tumor grade. Large cancers are
significantly more anisotropic than small cancers (P ≤ 0.001). The optimal anisotropy cutoff threshold for benign/malignant differentiation
of 150 kPa2 achieves the best sensitivity (74%) with a reasonable specificity (63%).
Conclusions
Anisotropy may be useful during benign/malignant differentiation of solid breast masses
using SWE. Anisotropy also correlates with some prognostic factors in breast cancer.
Key Words
Abbreviations and Acronyms:
AD (anisotropic difference (difference of the measurements in each plane)), AF (anisotropy factor (square of AD)), AUC (area under the curve (statistic measurement to evaluate the diagnostic performance of a method)), E (Young's modulus (measurement unit of tissue elasticity)), Emax (maximum elasticity), Emean (mean elasticity), ROC (receiver operator characteristics (statistical tool to evaluate the diagnostic performance of a method)), ROI (region of interest), SD (standard deviation), SWE (shear wave elastography (elastography technique used in the paper))To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 09, 2015
Accepted:
September 30,
2015
Received in revised form:
September 30,
2015
Received:
January 29,
2015
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
