On Nov. 27, 2006, Dr. Richard Barr of the Northeastern Universities of Ohio College of Medicine presented the results of a study comparing elastograms and biopsies at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North. In the study, 80 patients underwent both elastography-enhanced ultrasound exams and biopsies. Elastograms predicted that 18 of the lesions found would be malignant and 105 would be benign. Biopsies showed that the new imaging technique was off by only one: 17 malignant and 106 benign. At least in this small experiment, elastography gave no false negatives (it didn't miss any tumors that were cancerous) and hardly any false positives (it rarely identified a benign growth as cancerous).
While many more studies must take place, and attitudes must change, before elastography becomes as common as mammography or biopsies as a diagnostic tool, these initial results are encouraging.
References:
Radiological Society of North America. Elasticity Imaging Identifies Cancers and Reduces Breast Biopsies. Last Updated: November 27, 2006. Richard G. Barr, M.D., Ph.D. Elasticity Imaging Identifies Cancers and Reduces Breast BiopsiesUniversity of Texas Medical School at Houston. ELASTOGRAPHY.COM. Last Updated: December 20, 2006. Elastographic image quality vs tissue motion in vivo. Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 847-855, 2006. (PDF file)
