Objective To explore the value of combined application of ultrasound elastography (UE), color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in the differential diagnosis of breast occupying lesions.

Methods A total of 95 patients with breast occupying lesions from January to December 2022 were retrospectively selected, with 113 lesions in total. Before treatment, UE, CDFI and CEUS examinations were performed for the patients; the images were analyzed, and pathological examination was used as the "gold standard" to analyze diagnostic accuracy of images; the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the differential efficiencies of UE, CDFI, and CEUS examinations alone and their combination for breast occupying lesions.

Results Pathological tissue biopsies were performed in 95 patients with breast occupying diseases, and 38 patients had 48 malignant nodules, while 57 patients had no malignant nodules. According to the pathological examination results, the patients were divided into malignant group and benign group. Compared with the benign group, the malignant group had more nodules and larger diameter of the largest tumor, and the difference were statistically significant (P < 0.05). A total of 52 malignant lesions and 61 benign lesions were diagnosed by UE; 62 malignant lesions and 51 benign lesions were diagnosed by CDFI; 57 malignant lesions and 56 benign lesions were diagnosed by CEUS; 56 malignant lesions and 57 benign lesions were diagnosed by the combination of the three methods. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of CEUS in the diagnosis of breast occupying lesions were significantly higher than those of UE and CDFI, and the diagnostic efficacy of the three methods in combination was the highest (P < 0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of UE, CDFI and CEUS for diagnosis of breast occupying lesions was 0.750, 0.639 and 0.840 respectively; the Delong test results showed that the combined diagnostic efficiency was significantly higher than CDFI (Z=4.15, P < 0.01), UE (Z=3.81, P < 0.01) and CEUS (Z=2.68, P=0.02), diagnostic efficiency of CEUS was significantly higher than that of CDFI (Z=3.17, P < 0.01) and UE (Z=2.31, P=0.02), and diagnostic efficiency of UE was significantly higher than that of CDFI (Z=2.05, P=0.04).

Conclusion UE, CDFI and CEUS have high differential diagnostic value for benign and malignant breast occupying lesions, and the sensitivity and specificity of the combined diagnosis of UE, CDFI and CEUS are higher than those of individual diagnosis.