Objective:

To evaluate the value of elastography parameters in the diagnosis of breast lesions in different planes.

Methods:

A total of 236 breast lesions were examined by elastography

and the quantitative parameters on transverse and longitudinal planes were calculated

including strain ratio

area ratio and distance ratio of elasticity imaging (EI)

and maximal

mean and minimal shear wav

e velocities (SWVs). The areas under curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used to compare the diagnostic efficiency of above parameters.

Results:

In transverse plane

AUCs of maximal SWV

mean SWV

minimal SWV

area ratio

distance ratio and strain ratio were 0.882

0.871

0.833

0.744

0.722 and 0.623

respectively. AUCs of those in longitudinal planes were 0.866

0.863

0.786

0.774

0.719 and 0.593

respectively. AUCs in combined planes were 0.884

0.875

0.823

0.776

0.735 and 0.620

respectively. There was significant difference in AUC of minimal SWV between the two planes (

P

=0.031)

but AUCs of other parameters were not significantly different (

P

＞0.05). The AUCs of maximal SWV and mean SWV were higher than those of area ratio

distance ratio and strain ratio (

P

＜0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that maximal SWV combined with area ratio had a higher AUC value of 0.901

with a sensitivity of 86.60% and a specificity of 79.86%.

Conclusion:

The maximal SWV and mean SWV show better diagnostic performance

and SWV combined with EI can improve the diagnostic efficiency.