Objective:

To explore the clinical value of virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) technology in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant non-mass breast lesions.

Methods:

A retrospective analysis was performed on 203 patients with non-mass breast lesions (207 lesions in total) who were treated in Drum Tower Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing University School of Medicine from August 2018 to July 2021. According to the results of needle biopsy or surgical pathology

the patients were divided into benign and malignant group. The shear wave velocity (SWV) values were measured under the speed mode. The maximum value (V

max

)

the minimum value (V

min

) and the mean value (V

mean

) of the SWV of the lesions were measured by VTIQ. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to analyze the diagnostic performance of V

max

V

min

and V

mean

in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant non-mass breast lesions.

Results:

There were differences in conventional ultrasound characteristics between the two groups. The benign group was mainly manifested by sheet hypoechoic

while the malignant group was mainly manifested by microcalcification (

P

＜0.001). The Adler grade of blood flow signal in the malignant group was higher than that in the benign group (

P

＜0.001). The V

max

V

min

and V

mean

values of the lesion in the malignant group were significantly higher than those in the benign group ［(7.232.20) m/s

vs

(3.651.27) m/s; (3.221.26) m/s

vs

(2.20 0.68) m/s; (4.98 1.44) m/s

vs

(2.890.86) m/s］

the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (

P

＜0.05). The cut-off values ofV

max

V

min

and V

mean

in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant non-focal lesions

were 5.29

3.16 and 3.88 m/s

respectively. V

max

and V

mean

had higher sensitivity and specificity (V

max

: 82.4%

90.1%; V

mean

: 81.1%

89.1%)

and V

min

had higher specificity but lower sensitivity (88.9%

50.1%).

Conclusion:

VTIQ has important clinical value in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant non-mass breast lesions

and V

max

and V

mean

have high diagnostic efficacy.