Usefulness of Elastography for the Evaluation of Subcentimeter Solid Breast Nodules

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Authors aimed to study the value of elastography patterns obtained by SWE on evaluation of infracentimetric nodular breast lesions. The study was performed on an adequate number of lesions (65) from 45 patients. Ultrasound data were compared with histopathology results. Sensitivity and specificity of the method was calculated. The limitations of the study are well described. The authors conclude that elastography added to the B-mode ultrasonography increases precision.

I consider that the article is well and clear written, argumentations are well formulated and I agree with publication in this form.

Author Response

Many thanks for your careful comments.

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors presented an innovative use of elastography for the differential diagnosi of small breast nodules.

Overall, the manuscript is of interest and well written.

I have a few minor issues.

1)Please be sure that you have explained all the acronyms used in the text, including BI-RADS and FDA.

2) Please remove "harness" from the 1st line of the introduction

3) Please remove "with echography" from the 2nd line of the introduction, since you are referring to clinical palpation and not to ultrasonography.

4) In general, the term "echography" is incorrect. Please replace it with either "ultrasound" or "ultrasonography".

5) When referring to studies dealing with small lesions,  please include the following reference:

Ignee, A., Jenssen, C., Arcidiacono, P.G., Hocke, M., Möller, K., Saftoiu, A., Will, U., Fusaroli, P., Iglesias-Garcia, J., Ponnudurai, R., Petrone, M.C., Braden, B., Burmester, E., Dong, Y., Atkinson, N.S., Dietrich, C.F.

Endoscopic ultrasound elastography of small solid pancreatic lesions: A multicenter study. Endoscopy 2018;50:1071-1079.

Author Response

Many thanks for your comments and observations, which have permitted us to improve the manuscript.

1)Please be sure that you have explained all the acronyms used in the text, including BI-RADS and FDA.

 -We have incorporated the explanation of the acronyms in the text.

2) Please remove "harness" from the 1st line of the introduction

 -We have removed "hardness" from the 1st line of the introduction.

3) Please remove "with echography" from the 2nd line of the introduction, since you are referring to clinical palpation and not to ultrasonography.

 -We have removed "with echography" from the 2nd line of the introduction.

4) In general, the term "echography" is incorrect. Please replace it with either "ultrasound" or "ultrasonography".

 -We have rectified the term "echography" in the text.

5) When referring to studies dealing with small lesions,  please include the following reference: Ignee, A., Jenssen, C., Arcidiacono, P.G., Hocke, M., Möller, K., Saftoiu, A., Will, U., Fusaroli, P., Iglesias-Garcia, J., Ponnudurai, R., Petrone, M.C., Braden, B., Burmester, E., Dong, Y., Atkinson, N.S., Dietrich, C.F. Endoscopic ultrasound elastography of small solid pancreatic lesions: A multicenter study. Endoscopy 2018;50:1071-1079.

 -We have incorporated the proposed bibliographic citation.