Sonoelastography - A new paradigm in the characterization of breast lesions

The diagnostic performance of sonoelastography compared to conventional sonomammography in 136 patients with palpable breast lesions at L.G. Hospital, Ahmedabad is of interest. Hence, patients underwent B-mode ultrasound, mammography, and real-time elastography, with histopathology as the reference standard. Sonoelastography demonstrated higher specificity (90% vs. 60%), PPV (87% vs. 64%), and overall diagnostic accuracy (82%) compared with sonomammography, while maintaining comparable sensitivity (93.3%). The addition of elastography reclassified 30% of benign lesions correctly, reducing unnecessary biopsies and preserving 100% sensitivity in high-risk BIRADS categories. Thus, we show that sonoelastography is a valuable complementary tool to sonomammography in breast lesion characterization.