OBJECTIVE:

To assess the performance of conventional high frequency ultrasound (US) and US elastography in diagnosis of complex cystic and solid breast lesions.

METHODS:

Ninety three lesions in 93 patients underwent conventional US and US elastography, including strain elastography, acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging, and point shear wave speed (SWS) measurement.

RESULTS:

Pathological examination revealed 31 (33.3%) of the 93 lesions were malignant and the remaining 62 (66.7%) were benign. Multivariate analysis showed that elder patient (OR: 25.301), internal vascularity (OR: 4.518), and not circumscribed margin (OR: 3.813) were independent predictors for malignancy, while predominately cystic lesions (OR: 0.178) was a predictor for benign lesions (all p < 0.05). Invalid SWS measurement was occurred in 19 of 31 (61.3%) malignant lesions and 16 of 62 (25.8%) benign lesions, respectively (p < 0.05). The mean SWS value for malignant lesions was significantly lower than that for benign ones, being 1.60±0.63 m/s (range, 0.68–2.70 m/s) versus 2.33±0.77 m/s (range, 0.67–3.97 m/s) (p < 0.05). Areas under the ROC curve (Azs) for Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) assessment, strain elasticity score, ARFI imaging and valid point SWS measurement were 0.844, 0.734, 0.763 and 0.778,respectively.

CONCLUSIONS:

US BI-RADS category, strain elastography score, ARFI imaging patterns and point SWS measurement are useful for malignancy prediction of complex cystic and solid breast lesions. The result that SWS for malignant lesions is lower than benign one should be carefully interpreted since invalid SWS measurement is excluded for analysis. The true stiffness of malignant cystic and solid lesions should be further evaluated with a new generation of two-dimensional SWS imaging.