Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of the combined use of ultrasonographic (US) elastography and color Doppler US on breast neoplasm diagnosis and TNM staging. Methods A cohort of 58 biopsy-proved cases, who underwent US elastographic and Doppler US imaging, were included in the current study. The diagnostic abilities of the different elastographic indices (changing rate of the diameter and area, elastographic coefficient, Doppler blood flow score) were compared by using the ROC curves. Results Comparing to other indices, the area changing rate had the highest diagnostic ability with the AUC=0.914. Moreover, the combination use of the elastography and color Doppler US could increase the AUC to 0.981. All the elastographic indices of the advanced-stage (stage Ⅱ~Ⅳ) neoplasm were high than the early-stage (stage 0~Ⅰ) ones. The elastographic and Doppler scores both increased with the progress of the TNM stages. Conclusion The elastographic area changing rate could be used to accurately diagnose the breast neoplasm. Moreover, the combined use of US elastography and color Doppler US could increase the accuracy for the diagnosis, and may also provide useful information for the TNM staging.

Key words: Ultrasonography, Elasticity imaging techniques, breast neoplasm, Ultrasonography, Doppler, color, Neoplasm staging