The adjacent vessel on dynamic contrast-enhanced breast MRI

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Oncology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Breast MRI is crucial for detecting breast cancer.
• Differentiating malignant from benign breast lesions is essential for accurate diagnosis and treatment.
• Enhancing lesions on MRI require further characterization to improve diagnostic accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if adjacent vessels on subtraction images can differentiate malignant from benign breast lesions.
• To assess the impact of adjacent vessels on the specificity of breast MRI.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 132 histologically verified breast lesions (71 malignant, 10 DCIS, 51 benign).
• Dynamic breast MRI with subtraction imaging was performed prior to biopsy.
• Three radiologists assessed the presence of adjacent vessels in a blinded manner.

Main Results:

• An adjacent vessel was observed in 85.9% of malignant lesions and 19.6% of benign lesions (p < 0.001).
• The presence of an adjacent vessel yielded a specificity of 80.4% for malignancy.
• Positive predictive value was 85.9%, negative predictive value 80.4%, and accuracy 83.2% for detecting malignancy.

Conclusions:

• The presence of adjacent vessels on subtraction images is a significant indicator of malignancy.
• This imaging feature can enhance the specificity of breast MRI in breast cancer diagnosis.
• Adjacent vessels show promise as a reliable marker for differentiating malignant breast lesions.