Role of shear wave elastography in characterization of hepatic focal lesions

Abstract

Background: Elastography is a recently developed diagnostic method that aims to evaluate tissue stiffness. Its utility is based on the fact that pathological tissues are generally stiffer than surrounding healthy tissues which often show up as a hard lesion. Shear wave elastography (SWE) is a new technique based on shear waves that has been implemented in diagnostic ultrasound (US) systems. The aim of this study is to study the role of shear wave elastography in differentiation between benign and malignant hepatic focal lesions. Results: The study was conducted on 110 patients (92 males, 18 females) with a mean age of 51.7 years. Age range was from 30 to 70 years; 28 patients were diagnosed with benign lesions, and 82 with malignant lesions. SWE shows that there is a significant difference in stiffness between malignant and benign lesions with p value = 0.002 and with mean ± SD of 10.3 ± 6.31 kPa for the benign lesions and 16.2 ± 9.32 kPa for the malignant group. A cutoff value of 13.24 was selected to differentiate between benign and malignant lesions using the SWE mean providing sensitivity 78.04%, specificity 71.42%, and accuracy 64.2%. Conclusion: SWE is a good tool in the differentiation of benign and malignant hepatic focal lesions.