Radiology, Vol 196, 143-152, Copyright © 1995 by Radiological Society of North America

ARTICLES

Breast MR imaging with commercially available techniques: radiologic- pathologic correlation

ES Fobben, CZ Rubin, L Kalisher, AG Dembner, MH Seltzer and EJ Santoro
Department of Radiology, Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, NJ 07039, USA.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical utility of dynamic gadolinium- enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the breast with commercially available techniques in patients scheduled for excisional biopsy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 91 breast abnormalities, 70 benign and 21 malignant, were evaluated. Thin-section three-dimensional gradient-echo images were obtained before and 2, 4, and 7 minutes after injection of contrast material. Three radiologists prospectively evaluated the mammograms and MR images. RESULTS: The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were 0.820 for mammography and 0.893 for MR imaging (P = .67). Sensitivity of MR imaging was 82.5%, compared with 74.6% for mammography. Specificity of MR imaging was 82.5%, compared with 79.1% for mammography. Enhancement profiles showed early intense enhancement in malignancies but considerable overlap with enhancement of benign disease. CONCLUSION: Breast MR imaging is a slightly more sensitive modality than mammography but not a highly specific technique for evaluating breast lesions. It has utility in several clinical situations but should not be used as a substitute for biopsy or general screening.

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