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Javaria Akhtar, Muhammad Rafi Abbas and Muhammad Saleem Akhter

ABSTRACT

Objective: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of strain elastography to differentiate malignant and benign breast lesions , taking histopathology as gold standard modality.

Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Department of Radiology, Sahiwal Teaching Hospital, Sahiwal from 14th September 2019 to 13th March 2020.

Materials and Methods: 115 female patients between 22-65 years of age, with suspicion of hypoechoic or isoechoic focal solid breast lesion which was less than 30 mm in size were included in the study. We excluded patients having mastitis and indecisive histopathologic diagnosis. Ultrasound Strain elastography was carried out using My Lab twice with by Esaote. The biopsy of all cases was performed and the lesions were labeled as malignant or benign. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 22.0. Mean and SD were analyzed for variables like age, duration of disease and size of lesion. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound strain elastography to differentiate malignant from benign breast lesions were calculated keeping histopathology as gold standard.

Results: In 70 patients that were malignant on ultrasound strain elastography, 62 were true positive and 08 were false positive. Among, 45 patients that were benign on strain elastography, 05 were false negative while 40 patients were true negative. Overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy of strain elastography in detection of malignant from benign breast lesions, keeping histopathology as gold standard was 92.54%, 83.33%, 88.57%, 88.89% and 88.70% respectively. Association between ultrasound strain elastography and histopathology in differentiating malignant and benign breast lesions were found to be statically significant (p-value 0.001).

Conclusion: We concluded from our study that ultrasound strain elastography is a highly sensitive and accurate modality for diagnosing malignant breast lesions.

Key Words: Breast lesions, ultrasound, strain elastography.

Citation of article: Akhtar J, Abbas MR, Akhter MS. Diagnostic Accuracy of Strain Elastography in Differentiation of Malignant and Benign Breast Lesions Taking Histopathology as Gold Standard. Med Forum 2023;34(6):90-93.