European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background: This study was conducted to evaluate the role of ultrasound elastography in differentiation of solid breast masses, to calculate the elasticity score and strain ratio of all solid breast masses, and to determine the sensitivity and specificity of ultrasound elastography in differentiating between benign and malignant breast masses. Methods: This was a hospital based prospective diagnostic analytical study, conducted among 50 female patients who presented with solid breast masses to the Department of Radiodiagnosis, VIREC, Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Burla, Sambalpur, Odisha, over a period of 2 years, from November 2019 to October 2021 after obtaining clearance from the institutional ethics committee and written informed consent from the study participants. Results: There was strong evidence of relationship, found between BI-RADS interpretation and histopathology interpretation (p<0.0001), radiological interpretation and histopathology interpretation (p<0.001), and interpretation of Tsukuba score and histopathology interpretation (p<0.0001). Diagnostic significance of ES in class 2 lesions was shown to have a significant association between histopathological interpretation and ES. (P<0.001). Diagnostic significance of Tsukuba score in lesion with largest diameter (mm) >20 mm was assessed. A significant association was noted between histopathological interpretation and Tsukuba score (p<0.0001). In association of Tsukuba score with histopathological diagnosis, significant difference in frequency distribution was observed (p<0.0001) indicating a higher frequency of malignant lesion in subjects with a higher Tsukuba score. Conclusion: B-mode sonography which is well known for its high sensitivity but poor specificity, in combination with qualitative sonoelastography with high specificity, may increase diagnostic performance when differentiating between benign and malignant breast masses. Sonoelastography works best in combination with B-mode sonography and thus represents a technologically advanced extension of the same.