Real-time elastography for the differentiation of benign and malignant breast lesions: a meta-analysis

The prognostic significance of ultrasound real-time elastography (RTE) in patients with breast lesions is controversial. There are two different diagnostic methods: the elasticity score (ES) and the strain ratio (SR). A meta-analysis was performed using a random-effect model to assess the overall sensitivity and specificity of RTE in the differentiation of breast lesions. MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library before February 2011 were searched. A total of 22 studies, which included 4,713 breast nodules in 4,266 patients were analyzed. The overall mean sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of malignant breast lesions by RTE were 0.834 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.814–0.853] and 0.842 (95% CI, 0.829–0.854) for ES, and 0.883 (95% CI, 0.844–0.916) and 0.814 (95% CI, 0.786–0.839) for SR, respectively. RTE has a high sensitivity and specificity in the evaluation of breast lesions and can potentially reduce unnecessary breast biopsies.