Intra- and Interobserver Reproducibility of Shear Wave Elastography for Evaluation of the Breast Lesions

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate reproducibility of shear wave elastography (SWE) for breast lesions within and between observers and compare the reproducibility of SWE features. Materials and Methods: For intraobserver reproducibility, 225 masses with 208 patients were included; and two consecutive SWE images were acquired by each observer. For interobserver reproducibility, SWE images of the same mass were obtained by another observer before surgery in 40 patients. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were used to determine intra-and interobserver reproducibility. Results: Intraobserver reliability for mean elasticity (Emean) and maximum elasticity (Emax) were excellent (ICC = 0.803, 0.799). ICC for SWE ratio and minimum elasticity (Emin) were fair to good (ICC = 0.703, 0.539). Emean showed excellent ICC regardless of histopathologic type and tumor size. Emax, SWE ratio and Emin represented excellent or fair to good reproducibility based on histopathologic type and tumor size. In interobserver study, ICC for Emean, Emax and SWE ratio were excellent. Emean, Emax and SWE ratio represented excellent ICC irrespective of histopathologic type. ICC for Emean was excellent regardless of tumor size. SWE ratio and Emax showed fair to good interobserver reproducibility based on tumor size. Emin represented poor interobserver reliability. Conclusion: Emean in SWE was highly reproducible within and between observers. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Index terms

Accuracy and reproducibility of shear wave elastography according to the size and elasticity of lesions: A phantom study

“…In addition, high reproducibility and accuracy in the phantom may not be in accordance with human subjects, which have heterogeneous background surrounding the lesions and have lesions at different locations. However, previous studies with human subjects have reported similar results, [ 11 , 12 , 16 ] thus supporting the validity of our study.…”

“…Cosgrove et al [11] reported the excellent intraobserver reproducibility of the SWE of palpated breast masses in all diameter, areas, and perimeters and the good agreement of measured kPa (ICC: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.94-0.95; ICC: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.85-0.88). Hong et al [16] reported similar results on the inter-and intraobserver reproducibility of SWE (ICC: 0.879 and 0.803, retrospectively) for the mean value of measured kPa in patients with breast lesions.. Park et al [12] reported that the ICC of intraobserver reproducibility was 0.789 with SWE in malignant breast masses. In line with previous studies, the current study supports the excellent reproducibility of SWE in targets with various sizes and elasticity.…”

Is there a potential biomarker in distinguishing invasive breast carcinomas with elevated Ki‐67 levels among 2D‐SWE, SMI, and 18F‐FDG PET‐CT/MRI‐derived parameters?: A single‐center data

“…We included the mean of consecutive measurements in the statistical analysis to overcome this problem. Although there is no data on SMI, previous studies have shown that the reproducibility of the 2D‐SWE technique is high 29,30 . Finally, since a considerable part of our study population received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and postoperative results could not be achieved in a small group, statistical analysis was performed only Ki‐67 values of the core biopsy specimens.…”

“…Although there is no data on SMI, previous studies have shown that the reproducibility of the 2D-SWE technique is high. 29,30 Finally, since a considerable part of our study population received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and postoperative results could not be achieved in a small group, statistical analysis was performed only Ki-67 values of the core biopsy specimens. The recommendation of the IKGW group to use Ki-67 values obtained from the core biopsy was considered, although both core biopsy and excision samples were suitable.…”

Elasticity of torn supraspinatus tendons measured by shear wave elastography: a potential surrogate marker of chronicity?

“…There was also a large difference in the elasticity values of normal Achilles tendons between the study of Arda et al [3] and the study of Chen et al [7]. Although good intra-and inter-operator reproducibility of SWE has been proven for superficial tissues such as the breast [24], in a study of SWE applied to the supraspinatus muscle, Rosskopf et al [18] reported lower reliability in deep tissues and tissue close to the bone structure. Differences in measured and those without a tangent sign (negative tangent sign) (median, 83.50 kPa; IQR, 83.20 to 83.80 kPa; P=0.485).…”