Purpose: Elastography is
a new dynamic technique that uses ultrasound to estimate the stiffness of
tissues by measuring the degree of distortionand produces real-time quantitative
colour-coded map of local tissue elasticity. The aim of this study was to
determine and compare benign and malignant breast lesions using shear-wave
elastography (SWE).
Methods and Materials: We used Aixplorer Supersonic scanner with high-frequency transducer.
B-mode and SWE of breast lesions was performed in 254 women, 270 lesions were analyzed.
The colour scale indicated tissue elasticity in kilopascals (kPa). Maximum, minimum
and mean kPa E-values were recorded in each lesion and surrounding tissues. In
malignant lesions SWE area of bright colour was measured and compared with
tumour area measured by B-mode. 115 lesions were malignant, as confirmed by
core-biopsy, and 155 benign.
Results: Maximum value in kPa per malignant lesion was
300 kPa, mininimum 61,1 kPa and mean 180,9 kPa.Tissue around malignant lesions had maximum values of
89,6 kPa, minimum of 2,5 kPa and mean of 32,4 kPa. The values in kPA of
surrounding tissues around benign lesions were: maximum 62,1; minimum 15,5;
mean 30,6 kPa. Mean area of malignant lesions measured by SWE was 3.81 cm2
(range 1.48-8.59 cm2), and by B-mode 1.6 cm2 (range
0.35-4.4 cm2) (p < 0.01).
Conclusions: Malignant lesions have significantly lower elasticity than benign lesions. Area
of malignant lesions measured by SWE is significantly larger compared with
B-mode measurement. Surrounding
tissue around benign lesions is softer as compared to malignant leasions.
