THE BREAST ULTRASOUND ELASTOGRAPHY AND B-MODE ULTRASOUND FOR DIAGNOSING THE BREAST LESIONS IN COMPARISON WITH MAMMOGRAPHY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

Background: Breast ultrasound scanning is usually used to complement mammography screening in clinical practice to detect and locate breast lesions. In recent advancements, the breast ultrasound elastography (UE) technique is believed to be able to differentiate the breast lesions between malignant and benign accurately. This paper describes a systematic review of journal articles published from 2010-2020 on the accuracy of breast UE, B-mode ultrasound, and mammography. 

Materials and Methods: Four online databases were used to gather published articles and the potential articles were assessed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklists. The final 13 articles identified were cross-checked with the inclusion criteria. These articles were then classified into diagnostic accuracy of mammography, B-mode ultrasound, and breast ultrasound elastography technique.

Result: The results showed that the breast ultrasound elastography technique has high accuracy in differentiating breast lesions. This is mostly acquired when conventional B-mode ultrasound is combined with the shear wave elastography (SWE) technique. Then, the range of area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) is between 0.903 to 0.972. Likewise, the combination of conventional B-mode ultrasound and mammography screening showed approximately equal diagnostic accuracy. Therefore, this review may serve as a better understanding on the accuracy of the breast elastography technique to distinguish lesions as an alternative to the gold standard; mammography. 

Conclusion: This review recommends for further analysis through a meta-analysis to acquire more evidence on figures and statistical analysis. The development of screening protocol studies using UE techniques could also be encouraged in a clinical setting.