Dual energy contrast enhanced soft tissue digital mammography versus ultrasound elastography in the evaluation of breast masses

Purpose: To evaluate the value of dual energy contrast enhanced (DECE) soft tissue digital mammography and ultrasound elastography (UE) in the detection of breast lesions and discrimination between benign and malignant ones. Patients and methods: 32 female patients with breast lesions were prospectively evaluated at the female imaging unit of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology Department of the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University. Routine sono-mammography was done for each patient then these patients were submitted to DECE soft tissue digital mammography as well as UE. The DECE digital mammography scans were held via GE Senographe 2000D “GE Healthcare; Chalfont St-Giles, UK” FFDM system with some specific software and hardware adaptations. The UE exams were held on ultrasound scanner with elastography unit and 7.5 Mhz linear array electronic probe (Hitachi digital, EUB- 7500; Hitachi medical, Tokyo, Japan). Results: This study showed that sensitivity and specificity of DECE soft tissue digital mammography and UE were 86.3%, 60% and 80.9%, 40% respectively. Conclusion: DECE soft tissue digital mammography demonstrated significant increase in the sensitivity without a loss in specificity. DECE soft tissue digital mammography is fast-reproducible imaging tool without operator dependency. DECE soft tissue digital mammography and UE are valuable tools to evaluate equivocal lesions.