Department of Radiology, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown, Ohio, USA.
J Ultrasound Med. 2012 Jun;31(6):895-902. doi: 10.7863/jum.2012.31.6.895.
Elastography of the breast is a new technique for characterization of breast lesions. The reproducibility of elastographic techniques has been questioned. Precompression is known to effect elastographic results. This study determined the effect of precompression on clinical images and proposes a method to semiquantify the amount of precompression applied.
Ten patients with different breast tissue types were evaluated with shear wave and strain elastography with varying amounts of precompression. The changes in the shear wave speed and images were documented. A semiquantitative method for determining the amount of precompression applied is presented. The reproducibility of the technique was determine by repeated measurements by 3 sonographers.
Precompression substantially changes the elastographic results of patient images on both strain and shear wave elastography. Fat can have the same elasticity as cancer with clinically possible amounts of precompression. The proposed method for determining the amount of precompression applied has variability of less than 10%, which is within the error of the technique and would not affect clinical results. Four zones of precompression are identified, which are useful for explaining the effects of precompression on both strain and shear wave imaging.
Precompression is a substantial factor in obtaining accurate results with elastography. A proposed simple, easily applied technique can be used to semiquantify the amount of precompression applied. Precompression should be minimized in obtaining breast clinical images.
乳腺弹性成像是一种用于乳腺病变特征描述的新技术。弹性成像技术的可重复性一直受到质疑。预压缩已知会影响弹性成像结果。本研究旨在确定预压缩对临床图像的影响，并提出一种半定量评估应用预压缩量的方法。
对 10 名不同乳腺组织类型的患者进行剪切波和应变弹性成像检查，施加不同程度的预压缩。记录剪切波速度和图像的变化。提出了一种用于确定应用预压缩量的半定量方法。由 3 名超声医师进行重复测量以确定该技术的可重复性。
预压缩会显著改变患者图像的弹性成像结果，无论是应变还是剪切波弹性成像。在临床可能的预压缩量下，脂肪的弹性可以与癌症相同。所提出的用于确定应用预压缩量的方法具有小于 10%的可变性，这在技术误差范围内，不会影响临床结果。确定了四个预压缩区域，这对于解释预压缩对应变和剪切波成像的影响非常有用。
预压缩是获得准确弹性成像结果的重要因素。提出了一种简单、易于应用的技术，可以用于半定量评估应用的预压缩量。在获得乳腺临床图像时应尽量减少预压缩。
