@article{phillips_torres_steed_caughey_merhout_kirk_hartman_kuzmiak_ray_gallippi_2022, title={Breast Lesion Diameter in VisR Imaging Differs Between Malignant and Benign Masses in Women}, ISSN={["1948-5719"]}, DOI={10.1109/IUS54386.2022.9958080}, abstractNote={The specificity of current clinical screening for identifying malignant breast lesions is as low as 65%, requiring costly and invasive additional tests to rule out false positives [1]. Ultrasound elastography is increasingly being used to augment diagnosis by measuring mechanical properties of the tissue. For this purpose, we investigate the E/B ratio, which compares lesion size on an elastogram to lesion size on B-mode and is reported to be >1 in malignant cases and <1 in benign cases. The E/B ratio is typically measured from stiffness estimate images that are based on tissue displacement after mechanical excitation, like SE or SWE. These stiffness estimation methods fail to account for viscosity, which is diagnostically relevant for breast cancer and can also bias stiffness estimates. We improve on these previous methods by measuring E/B ratio from both stiffness and viscosity VisR images. We found that E/B ratio measured from VisR relative elasticity (RE) and relative viscosity (RV) statistically separated benign and malignant breast lesions and improved AUC and sensitivity compared to E/B ratio measured from ARFI peak displacement.}, journal={2022 IEEE INTERNATIONAL ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM (IEEE IUS)}, author={Phillips, Anna V. and Torres, Gabriela and Steed, Doreen and Caughey, Melissa C. and Merhout, Jasmin and Kirk, Shanah R. and Hartman, Terry S. and Kuzmiak, Cherie M. and Ray, Emily M. and Gallippi, Caterina M.}, year={2022} }
 @article{phillips_torres_steed_caughey_merhout_kirk_hartman_kuzmiak_ray_gallippi_2021, title={ARFI Variance of Acceleration for Diagnostic Breast Cancer Imaging in Women, in vivo}, ISSN={["1948-5719"]}, DOI={10.1109/IUS52206.2021.9593527}, abstractNote={Early detection of breast cancer greatly aids survival. However, the specificity of current screening methods for identifying malignancy is poor, requiring costly and invasive additional tests and causing anxiety for the patient. Although some ultrasound methods have used mechanical properties to discriminate benign and malignant lesions, they are complicated by tissue features like fluid and necrosis. We propose a new metric, ΔLog(VoA), which can be calculated from ARFI ultrasound data and incorporates the mechanical and acoustic properties of tissue into one parameter. ΔLog(VoA) is statistically significantly lower in fluid- and necrosis-containing masses than solid ones (Wilcoxin, p<0.006). ΔLog(VoA) does not significantly differ between malignant and benign masses. However, it is significantly lower in the surrounding tissue of malignant masses than in the surrounding tissue of benign ones (Wilcoxin, p<0.02). These results suggest that ΔLog(VoA) can differentiate clinically relevant lesion features such as fluid and necrosis, and detect tissue characteristics that coincide with malignancy.}, journal={INTERNATIONAL ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM (IEEE IUS 2021)}, author={Phillips, Anna V and Torres, Gabriela and Steed, Doreen and Caughey, Melissa C. and Merhout, Jasmin and Kirk, Shanah R. and Hartman, Terry S. and Kuzmiak, Cherie M. and Ray, Emily M. and Gallippi, Caterina M.}, year={2021} }