Elastography useful for breast cancer screening in microcalcification cases: Study

Istanbul, Turkey: Shear-wave elastography (SWE) is a useful method for characterizing suspicious microcalcifications (MCs) in women undergoing breast cancer screening, finds a recent study. This would help in making a decision on whether the patient should receive a second biopsy or excision. 

The findings of the study are published in the journal Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology.

"Despite biopsy being recommended for showing suspicious microcalcifications, 2D shear-wave elastography is a "useful" method for characterizing microcalcifications that can be visualized with ultrasonography (USG)," wrote the authors. 

Yasemin Kayadibi, Istanbul Universitesi-Cerrahpasa, Kocamustafapasa, Istanbul, Turkey, and colleagues aimed to investigate the correlations between the findings of two-dimensional shear-wave elastography and the histopathologic results of microcalcifications visualized using ultrasonography.

For this purpose, the researchers evaluated five people with suspicious MCs without accompanying mass. They underwent USG and 2D-SWE before USG-guided tru-cut biopsy. They then compared SWE values and histopathologic features statistically. Using the Mann–Whitney U test, the variables between groups were analyzed. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed and cut-off values determined to discriminate malignancy, invasiveness and high grade. 

"Our findings show that SWE is a useful method in clinical practice for characterizing MCs that can be visualized with USG," concluded the authors. 

Reference:

The study titled, "Characterization of Suspicious Microcalcifications on Mammography Using 2D Shear-Wave Elastography," is published in the journal Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology.

DOI: https://www.umbjournal.org/article/S0301-5629(21)00219-2/fulltext