Strain histograms used for differential diagnosis of breast masses according to hardness percentage

To evaluate the diagnostic performance of percentage of hard component (PHC) versus strain ratio (SR) in focal breast lesion diagnosis. Ultrasonography and elastography images of 245 malignant and 255 benign breast lesions were obtained and analyzed according to the Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System of the American College of Radiology. PHC and SR were measured for each lesion and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate and compare the diagnostic performance of conventional ultrasound (CU) only, PHC with CU, and SR with CU. Mean PHC differed significantly between malignant (90.46 ± 13.29) and benign (62.03 ± 25.61) lesions. Mean SR differed significantly between malignant (4.61 ± 1.75) and benign (2.34 ± 1.80) lesions. ROC curve threshold values were 82.45 for PHC and 2.69 for SR. The area under the curve values for CU, SR with CU, and PHC with CU were 0.956, 0.960, and 0.956, respectively, with no significant differences among them (P < .05). PHC was comparable to SR for differentiating malignant from benign breast masses and may be an auxiliary tool for breast lesion stiffness evaluation. ROC data for CU, SR with CU, and PHC with CU were statistically similar.