Recent Developments in Breast Ultrasound with a Special Focus on Shear-Wave Elastography

Since the first use of breast ultrasound by Wild and Reid [1] in 1953, it has taken half a century to achieve a level of ultrasound technology that allows it to be considered as a multimodality imaging tool for use at the highest level in breast diagnostics. Ultrasound has been described to detect mammographically occult breast cancer [2]. Indeed, mammography and ultrasound are complementary imaging tools for breast examination in everyday practice. The main indications for breast ultrasound are mammographically dense breasts, unclear or suspicious findings on mammography, patients with breast complaints, preoperative localization of breast cancer, aftercare of breast cancer patients, evaluation of high risk patients (familial history of BRCA 1 and 2 mutation), and second-look sonography after magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) [3].