Q-analysis real-time ultrasonic elastography quantitative analysis in the diagnosis of breast benign and malignant lesions / 中华医学超声杂志（电子版）

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the value of GE′s Q-analysis real-time ultrasonic elastography quantitative analysis software in the diagnosis of breast diseases and explore the best cutoff point of the breast diseases diagnosis.Methods The elastograms of 71 breast lesions(66 patients)were evaluated by using the GE LOGIQ E9 with the Q-analysis software.All the 71 lesions were diagnosed as malignant and benign lesions by surgery or biopsy.The receiver operating characteristic (ROC)curves of the entirety elasticity rate and local elasticity rate was performed.We compared the areas under ROC curves ( AUC) of the two modalities and confirmed the best cutoff point of the breast diseases diagnosis .We also assessed the sensitivity and specificity of the two modalities .Lastly we assessed the ROC curves with Z test to determine whether the difference between the two modalities was significant .Results Among the 71 leisions (66 patients),there were 37 benign lesions and 34 malignant ones.The elastograms of the leisions showed that the elasticity of 37 benign leisions was good ,the hardness value was low and the texture was even .As for the 34 malignant leisions,the elasticity was bad,the hardness value was high and the texture was uneven .The AUC of the local modality was 0.899 ( >0.5).The AUC of the entire modality,was 0.985 ( >0.5).Both modalities were accurate for the diagnosis of breast diseases .When the cutoff point of entirety elasticity rate was set as 3.60,the sensitiveness was 82.4%and the specificity was 86.5%.When the cutoff point of local elasticity rate was set as 2.60,the sensitiveness was 97.1% and the specificity was 91.9%.The difference between the two modalities was significant (Z =2.621,P=0.0088).Conclusions Q-analysis real-time ultrasonic elastography quantitative analysis is able to evaluate the rigidity and texture of tissue and is valuable to distinguish benign breast lesions between malignant breast lesions .The sensitiveness and specificity of local modality are higher than that of entirety modality .