Diagnostic value of virtual touch tissue quantification for breast lesions with different size

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Diagnostic Ultrasound
• Breast Imaging

Background:

• Accurate breast lesion characterization is crucial for timely diagnosis and treatment.
• Conventional ultrasound has limitations in differentiating benign from malignant lesions, especially smaller ones.
• Virtual Touch Tissue Quantification (VTTQ) offers a non-invasive method to assess tissue stiffness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the diagnostic performance of VTTQ in breast lesions of varying sizes.
• To compare the effectiveness of VTTQ across different size categories: <10mm, 10-20mm, and >20mm.
• To determine the diagnostic value of shear wave velocity (SWV) measurements.

Main Methods:

• 206 breast lesions were categorized by size and examined using conventional ultrasound and VTTQ.
• Shear wave velocity (SWV) was measured for each lesion and adjacent normal tissue.
• Pathological examination confirmed diagnoses; ROC curve analyses evaluated diagnostic value.

Main Results:

• Malignant lesions exhibited significantly higher SWV than benign lesions, except for those <10mm.
• Area under the curve (AUC) showed significant differences between the <10mm group and the other two groups (10-20mm, >20mm).
• The sensitivity of VTTQ for lesions <10mm was notably low (33.33%).

Conclusions:

• VTTQ is a promising diagnostic tool for breast lesions larger than 10mm.
• Further research is needed to enhance the sensitivity of VTTQ for smaller breast lesions (<10mm).
• VTTQ's ability to differentiate lesion types improves with lesion size.