Elastography in Breast Imaging

Elastography has been one of the most intensely investigated additions to clinical ultrasound examinations for almost two decades. Elastography guidelines for many different anatomical regions have been published by different medical scientific societies [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]. In general, two different methods of elastography are available – strain (SE) and shear wave elastography (SWE) [ 6 ] [ 7 ]. Shear wave elastography has been most extensively researched for liver applications, but within recent years the method has also been evaluated for focal lesions in the breast, the thyroid and other organs. In shear wave elastography, the speed of shear waves, which arise perpendicularly to a push pulse from the transducer, is measured. In strain elastography, mechanical stress is applied to the transducer, and the deformation of tissue is shown on a color map, which may be interpreted visually or semi-quantitatively calculating a ratio. This method is mainly used for the evaluation of focal lesions.