Evaluation of the severity of capsular contracture using elastography after breast implant reconstruction

BACKGROUND: Capsular contracture around implants is a common complication after breast reconstruction. Strain elastography (STE) and shear-wave elastography (SWE) are noninvasive imaging techniques that can measure tissue stiffness and thickness of the capsule. OBJECTIVE: The purposes of the study were to compare STE and SWE for measurement of capsular contracture after breast implant reconstruction using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) and to investigate the correlation of these data with the Baker score, which is the most frequently used clinical staging scale for capsule contracture. METHODS: The subjects were 20 patients (27 implants) who underwent breast reconstruction. RESULTS: The reproducibility of SWE (ICC: 0.878) was higher than that of STE (ICC: 0.724) for measurement of capsular contracture. The correlation coefficient between measurements with the two methods was low (r = 0.6788). The Baker score had a higher correlation with measurements with SWE (r = 0.8124) compared to those with STE (r = 0.6983). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that SWE is a better tool for assessment of the degree of capsule contracture surrounding implants after breast reconstruction.