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Published on: December 15, 2014
Usefulness of diffusion-weighted imaging of breast tumors: quantitative and visual assessment
Kaiji Inoue1, Eito Kozawa, Waka Mizukoshi
1Department of Radiology, Saitama Medical University International Medical Center, 1397-1 Yamane, Hidaka 350-1298, Japan. kaiji@saitama-med.ac.jp
Purpose:
We evaluated the usefulness of quantitative and visual assessment of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) of breast tumors to distinguish malignant from benign tumors.
Materials And Methods:
The DWI findings of 106 breast lesions (15 benign, 91 malignant) were retrospectively analyzed. The mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value for each lesion was calculated using b values of 250, 500, 750, and 1000 s/mm(2) as a quantitative assessment. We visually evaluated the signal intensity of each breast lesion on the basis of a spinal signal intensity in DWI (b = 1000 s/mm(2)) and compared the mean ADC values using a threshold mean ADC +1.65 × standard deviation (SD) for malignant and benign breast lesions. Obviously strong signal intensity of the lesion relative to that of the spinal cord on DWI signifies malignancy.
Results:
The mean ADC value for benign lesions (1.50 ± 0.38 × 10(-3) mm(2)/s) was significantly higher than that for malignant lesions (0.98 ± 0.19 × 10(-3) mm(2)/s), with 94.5% sensitivity, 80% specificity, and 92.5% accuracy. Sensitivity for visual assessment was 91.5%, specificity was 33.3%, and total accuracy was 82.5%.
Conclusion:
ADC values, but not visual assessment, may be useful for differentiating benign and malignant breast tumors.
