Breast Elastography: Threshold Values and Benign/Malignant Differentiation
The Role of Elastography in Differentiating Breast Lesions
According to available sources, shear wave elastography (SWE) improves the specificity of breast ultrasound examination. The multinational BE1 study (939 lesions) demonstrated that adding SWE increases the specificity of US (Berg WA et al., Radiology 2012;262:435-49).
The method is characterized by high reproducibility (Cosgrove DO et al., Eur Radiol 2012;22:1023-32). SWE has shown potential in reducing the number of unnecessary biopsies in breast cancer diagnosis (Golatta M et al., Ultraschall Med 2021).
Threshold Values in kPa and Emax
Specific numerical thresholds (kPa, Emax) for distinguishing benign from malignant lesions are not indicated in the provided source excerpts. [Clarify] by referring to the full text of WFUMB guidelines (Barr RG et al., Ultrasound Med Biol 2015;41:1148-60) and ACR-SRU.
Technical Aspects of Implementation
Control of precompression is critically important: excessive pressure by the probe distorts elastography results. A clinically applicable semi-quantitative method for assessing precompression has been developed (Barr RG, Zhang Z, J Ultrasound Med 2012;31:895-902). The methodology for performing strain elastography is described in Dietrich CF et al. (Ultrasound International Open 2017;3:E137-E49).
Comparative Effectiveness of Methods
A meta-analytic comparison showed the significance of both elastography and BI-RADS assessment in differentiating benign and malignant breast lesions (Sadigh G et al., Breast Cancer Res Treat 2012;133:23-35).
Frequently asked questions
What specific threshold values in kPa are recommended for differentiation?
The numerical thresholds in kPa and Emax values are not provided in the source excerpts [clarify] by referring to the full text of WFUMB and ACR-SRU guidelines.
Does SWE increase the specificity of breast ultrasound?
Yes. According to the BE1 study (939 lesions), adding SWE to ultrasound increases specificity (Berg WA et al., Radiology 2012).
How reproducible is breast SWE?
Breast SWE has high reproducibility (Cosgrove DO et al., Eur Radiol 2012).
Does precompression affect results?
Yes, precompression distorts results; a semi-quantitative method for its assessment has been proposed (Barr RG, Zhang Z, J Ultrasound Med 2012).
Can elastography reduce the number of biopsies?
SWE has shown potential in reducing the number of unnecessary biopsies in breast cancer diagnosis (Golatta M et al., Ultraschall Med 2021).