The Role of Elastography in Fibroadenoma of the Breast and differentiating it from its Mimics

Abstract

Fibroadenomas are one of the most common benign diseases of the breast varying in number and size in all quadrants of the breast. Less than 2% of lesions with the typical ultrasound features of a fibroadenoma, are found to be malignant on biopsy. Biopsy is the gold standard investigation to diagnose benign and malignant breast lesions, however it is an invasive procedure with risks of complications. Ultrasound elastography combined with B-mode ultrasonography had shown variable degrees of sensitivity and specificity however, in our study it showed high sensitivity and specificity as compared to other studies. The most reliable tool in our study was the strain ratio having the highest sensitivity and specificity. In summary, Strain elastography combined to B-mode sonography improves the diagnostic performance of differentiating benign from malignant well circumscribed breast lesions with an additional benefit of preventing unnecessary biopsies and speeding up the diagnosis of malignant lesions instead of follow up of the patient for early diagnosis of malignancies.