Breast elastography: A literature review.

Breast elastography is a new sonographic imaging technique which provides information on breast lesions in addition to conventional ultrasonography (US) and mammography. Elastography provides a noninvasive evaluation of the stiffness of a lesion. Today, two technical solutions are available for clinical use: strain elastography and shear wave elastography. Initial evaluations of these techniques in clinical trials suggest that they may substantially improve the possibility of differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions thereby limiting recourse to biopsy and considerably reducing the number of benign breast biopsy diagnoses. This article reviews the basics of this technique, how to perform the examination, image interpretation and the results of major clinical studies. Although elastography is easy to perform, training and technical knowledge are required in order to obtain images permitting a correct interpretation. This paper will highlight the technique and point out common pitfalls. Breast elastography is a new sonographic imaging technique which provides information on breast lesions in addition to conventional ultrasonography (US) and mammography. Elastography provides a noninvasive evaluation of the stiffness of a lesion. Today, two technical solutions are available for clinical use: strain elastography and shear wave elastography. Initial evaluations of these techniques in clinical trials suggest that they may substantially improve the possibility of differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions thereby limiting recourse to biopsy and considerably reducing the number of benign breast biopsy diagnoses. This article reviews the basics of this technique, how to perform the examination, image interpretation and the results of major clinical studies. Although elastography is easy to perform, training and technical knowledge are required in order to obtain images permitting a correct interpretation. This paper will highlight the technique and point out common pitfalls.