Breast mass characterization using shear wave elastography and ultrasound

To evaluate the role of SWE in characterizing breast masses and ascertain whether additional use of SWE to ultrasound for evaluating BI-RADS 3 and 4a masses could help reduce long-term follow-up and unnecessary biopsies of these suspicious breast masses.

This prospective, cross-sectional study was performed between June 2013 and November 2014. All enrolled patients underwent clinical breast examination, ultrasound, SWE and ultrasound-guided core biopsy of the breast mass. Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RAD) categories were assigned to breast masses. For qualitative and quantitative variables of SWE, cut-off values for differentiation between benign and malignant breast masses were estimated. Modified BIRADS' (up/downgrading of BIRADS category) was done for BI-RADS 3/4a masses by combining individual SWE parameters and ultrasound findings. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of modified BI-RADS' and ultrasound BI-RADS were compared.

A total of 119 women (mean age, 42.3±13.6 [SD] years; range: 13-87 years) with a single breast mass each were enrolled. Histopathologically, 57/119 (48%) breast masses were benign and 62 (52%) were malignant. On ultrasound, 42 breast masses were BI-RADS3 and 77 were BI-RADS 4 (4a, n=10; 4b, n=24; 4c, n=43) leading to 96.8% sensitivity and 70.2% specificity. On SWE, benign breast masses were oval/round, homogenous/reasonably homogenous, blue/green with lower elasticity values and malignant breast masses were irregular, inhomogeneous, red/orange with high elasticity values. On modified BI-RADS' using E-color and E-mean/E-max, specificity improved to 78.9% and 75.4% respectively.

Addition of SWE to ultrasound improves characterization of BI-RADS 3 and 4a masses. E-max, E-mean and E-color are the most useful SWE parameters to differentiate between malignant and benign breast masses.