Breast Shear Wave elastography and the war of differential diagnosis: are on the way to classify quantitatively breast pathology

Abstract

Objectives: The fundamental purpose is to evaluate if elastography technique can predict the type of breast lesion conferring a numerical classification to different histopathological diagnosis. We also want to relate the BIRADS classification with the elastographic measurements in order to determine the point that increases the possibility of malignancy. Material and Methods: From January to November of 2015, we study 116 patients with an age between 19 and 82 years. 117 lesions are evaluated consecutive with ultrasound, elastography and biopsy. Two index are measured, the hardness in kPa and the propagation speed of the waves in m/sec, in the most suspicious areas of the nodules. The minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation values ​​are calculated. All cases are correlated with their histopathology. Results: We found statistically significant differences (p