Application of Real-time Elastic Ultrasound Technology in the Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

Objective: To explore the application value of real-time elastography (RTE) in the diagnosis of breast cancer. Methods: Forty patients with breast cancer who were treated by the first hospital of Jilin University were selected. All the patients were diagnosed by RTE and pathology. The pathological diagnosis was used as the gold standard to evaluate the benign and malignant tumors. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve) was used to evaluate the value of RTE in the diagnosis of breast lesions. Results: Of the 52 lesions, 33 were benign and 19 were malignant. Ratio-max and Ratio-mean were significantly different between the benign and malignant groups (P<0.05). The critical point of Ratio-max for benign and malignant nodules was 3.80, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of diagnosis were 84.2%, 78.8% and 80.8%, respectively. The critical point of ratio-mean for benign and malignant nodules was 3.15, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of diagnosis were 78.9%, 84.8% and 82.6%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between Ratio-mean and Ratio-max (Z=0.673, P<0.05). Conclusion: RTE can better distinguish between benign and malignant breast tumors, and combined with two-dimensional and color Doppler ultrasound diagnostic indicators will further improve the diagnostic accuracy.