Correlation Between Virtual Touch Tissue Imaging Quantification And Histological Grade In Non-special Invasive Breast Carcinoma

ObjectiveTo analyze the conventional ultrasonography?US?and virtual touch tissue imaging quantification?VTIQ?elastography of non-special invasive breast carcinoma,and to explore the correlation the conventional ultrasonography,elastography and histopathologi-cal grade in order to improve the diagnostic value of breast ultrasound.MethodsAccording to the exclusion criteria formulated in this study,a total of 268 female patients with 276 breast lesions during December 2015 to July 2017 with pathologically confirmed non-special invasive breast carcinoma were enrolled.All patients underwent conventional ultrasonography in our department before operation and pathological examination.The size of mass,shape,speculated margins,posterior echo features,hyperechoic halo,microcalcification,blood flow and axillary lymph node metastasis were recorded.Pathological results were used as the gold standard,and?² test and Spearman rank correlation were utilized to analyze the relationship between the conventional ultrasound and histopathological grade of non-special invasive breast carcinoma.Seventy-two breast lesions were subjected to multiple shear wave velocity?SWV?measurements using VTIQ elastography,and the minimum and the maximum values were discarded.The minimum,maximum and average of the remaining SWV values were recorded as SWV_min,SWV_max,SWV_mean.Single-factor analysis of variance and SNK-q test were used to determine whether there was any difference of the age of the patients and the SWVmean value of the lesion between the groups of different histological grade.ResultsIn this study,the statistical results of the conventional ultrasound from 276 lesions of non-specific invasive breast carcinoma were obtained,including 63 tumors with grade?,152 tumors with grade?and 61 tumors with grade?.The tumor size,spiculated margins,posterior echo features,hyperechoic halo and axillary lymph node metastasis were well correlated with the histological grade of non-special invasive breast carcinoma.A positive correlation was found among the flow classification and the histological grade?r_s=0.470,P<0.05?.The higher the histological grade was,the greater the relative size of the tumor and the lower the detection rate of spiculated margins were.The higher the detection rate of posterior echo enhancement,hyperechoic halo and axillary lymph node metastasis were,the higher the blood flow classification was.There was poor correlation between histological grade of non-special invasive breast carcinoma and tumor shape,microcalcification?P>0.05?.The average SWV value was?5.55±1.55?m/s in 72 lesions of non-specific invasive breast carcinoma,including 15 tumors with grade?,39 tumors with grade?and 18 tumors with grade?.SWV_mean values were?4.40±0.99?m/s,?5.52±1.49?m/s and?6.57±1.40?m/s respectively in grade?,?and?.The results of statistical analysis showed that SWV_meanean values of different histological grading of non-specific invasive breast carcinoma were different and the difference was statistically significant.Moreover,there was also significant difference in the internal SWV_mean value between any two groups of histological grades.The higher the histological grade of breast lesions was,the higher values of SWV_meanwithin the lesions were.ConclusionsConventional ultrasound and VTIQ elastography are closely related to histopathologic grade of breast nonspecific invasive carcinoma.It can be a predictor of histological grade,providing a more comprehensive imaging basis for the clinical treatment options and prognosis evaluation.