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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Tracking the Mammary Architectural Features and Detecting Breast Cancer with Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Published on: December 15, 2014
Comparison between MRI with spin-echo echo-planar diffusion-weighted sequence (DWI) and histology in the diagnosis of
1Cattedra di Radiologia, Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Ospedale di Circolo - Fondazione Macchi, Via Guicciardini, 21100, Varese, Italy. eugegeno@libero.it
Purpose:
Our aim was to assess the usefulness of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with spin-echo echo-planar diffusion-weighted sequences (SE-EPI-DWI) in the study of primary and secondary soft-tissue tumours by correlating the results of imaging and histology.
Material And Methods:
We retrospectively studied 23 patients (14 men, 9 women; age range 25-87 years) affected by soft-tissue lesions. The MRI study was performed with baseline and contrast-enhanced SE-T1, proton density/T2-weighted (PD/T2), fat-saturated (FATSAT) DP/T2 and single-shot SE-EPI-DWI (b value 50-400- 800s/mm2) sequences.
Results:
We identified 7/23 benign lesions (three myxoid, four nonmyxoid) and 16/23 malignant tumours (four myxoid, 12 nonmyxoid) with a mean diameter between 21 mm and 20 cm. Qualitative analysis of DWI showed persistence of high signal intensity for increasing b-values in all malignant tumours. Quantitative DWI analysis of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps showed a statistical difference between benign and malignant lesions.
Conclusions:
In our experience, DWI with qualitative and quantitative analysis correlated well with histology.
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