Faruk Tasnuva, Islam Md Kafiul, Arefin Sams, Haq Md Zahurul
Bangladesh Medical & Dental Council, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Clin Breast Cancer. 2015 Oct;15(5):313-24. doi: 10.1016/j.clbc.2015.01.002. Epub 2015 Jan 22.
Elastography is a promising way to assess tissue differences regarding stiffness or elasticity for what was historically assessed manually by palpation. Combined with conventional imaging modalities (eg, ultrasonography [US]), elastography can potentially evaluate the stiffness of a breast lesion and consequently help to detect malignant breast tumor from benign ones. Recent studies show that ultrasonographic elastography (USE) provides higher image quality compared with conventional B-mode US or mammography during breast cancer diagnosis, which eventually helps to reduce false-positive results (ie, increased specificity) and therefore is useful in avoiding breast biopsy. This article reviews the basics of elastography technique, classifications, diagnosis results obtained from clinical studies to date for differentiating malignant breast tumors from benign lesions, and its future possibilities. In addition, this article generalizes different elastography methods, modes, and associated imaging modalities in a simpler way and attempts to identify misconceptions and confusion related to existing elastography techniques. It also makes an effort to identify the gaps of information that need to be filled so that interested researchers can get an overall idea of elastography-based methods in a convenient way to carry out their research on breast elastography for prospective future applications, eg, breast cancer diagnosis or even in intraoperative breast tumor localization.
弹性成像技术是一种很有前景的方法，可用于评估组织在硬度或弹性方面的差异，而这些差异在过去是通过触诊手动评估的。弹性成像技术与传统成像方式（如超声检查[US]）相结合，有可能评估乳腺病变的硬度，从而有助于区分乳腺恶性肿瘤和良性肿瘤。最近的研究表明，在乳腺癌诊断过程中，超声弹性成像（USE）与传统B超或乳腺X线摄影相比，能提供更高的图像质量，最终有助于减少假阳性结果（即提高特异性），因此有助于避免乳腺活检。本文回顾了弹性成像技术的基础知识、分类、迄今为止临床研究中用于区分乳腺恶性肿瘤和良性病变的诊断结果及其未来的可能性。此外，本文以更简单的方式概括了不同的弹性成像方法、模式及相关成像方式，试图找出与现有弹性成像技术相关的误解和困惑。本文还努力找出需要填补的信息空白，以便感兴趣的研究人员能够以方便的方式全面了解基于弹性成像的方法，从而开展乳腺弹性成像的研究，用于未来的预期应用，如乳腺癌诊断甚至术中乳腺肿瘤定位。
