Technical evaluation of Virtual Touch™ tissue quantification and elastography in benign and malignant breast tumors

Jiang,Quan; Zhang,Yuan; Chen,Jian; Zhang,Yun‑Xiao; He,Zhu

doi:10.3892/etm.2014.1875

Technical evaluation of Virtual Touch™ tissue quantification and elastography in benign and malignant breast tumors

Authors:
- Quan Jiang
- Yuan Zhang
- Jian Chen
- Yun‑Xiao Zhang
- Zhu He
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Affiliations: Department of Ultrasound, Pudong New Area People's Hospital, Shanghai 201200, P.R. China
Published online on: August 4, 2014 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2014.1875
Pages: 1059-1064

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of the Virtual Touch™ tissue quantification (VTQ) and elastosonography technologies in benign and malignant breast tumors. Routine preoperative ultrasound, elastosonography and VTQ examinations were performed on 86 patients with breast lesions. The elastosonography score and VTQ speed grouping of each lesion were measured and compared with the pathological findings. The difference in the elastosonography score between the benign and malignant breast tumors was statistically significant (P<0.05). The detection rate for an elastosonography score of 1‑3 points in benign tumors was 68.09% and that for an elastosonography score of 4‑5 points in malignant tumors was 82.05%. The difference in VTQ speed values between the benign and malignant tumors was also statistically significant (P<0.05). In addition, the diagnostic accuracy of conventional ultrasound, elastosonography, VTQ technology and the combined methods showed statistically significant differences (P<0.05). The use of the three technologies in combination significantly improved the diagnostic accuracy to 91.86%. In conclusion, the combination of conventional ultrasound, elastosonography and VTQ technology can significantly improve accuracy in the diagnosis of breast cancer.

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