Complex ultrasound elastography examination for cervical cancer relapse detection

Summary. The aim of this article is to investigate the information value of elastography for cervical cancer relapse detection. 120 patients, previously diagnosed with cervical cancer (stages 0–IV), have undergone ultrasound elastography examination. The results of the research demonstrate that during remission period tissues stay elastic, while recurrent tumors are characterised by a great rigidity. Elastography possesses low information value for detecting small-sized recurrent tumors (less than 1 cm3 in size), so it doesn’t affect sensibility of ultrasound examination in respect of the disease continuation detection (75%). Nevertheless, as it helps to differentiate recurrent tumors from inflammatory infiltrates, elastography increases specificity and accuracy of the method from 83.6 to 93.2% and from 82.7 to 91.3%, respectively (p<0.05).