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Updated: Mar 18, 2026
Tracking the Mammary Architectural Features and Detecting Breast Cancer with Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Published on: December 15, 2014
Breast findings incidentally detected on body MRI
Bianca Bignotti1, Giulia Succio2, Francesca Nosenzo1
1Department of Health Sciences (DISSAL), University of Genova, Via A. Pastore 1, 16132 Genoa, Italy.
Objectives:
To evaluate breast findings incidentally detected on body MRI.
Methods:
A retrospective review of the institutional database identified 1752 body MRI performed between January 2015 and September 2015. MRI of women with breast tissue visible in the field-of-view were reviewed for breast findings. Breast findings were classified with the breast imaging reporting and data system (BI-RADS) lexicon. The standard statistic, costs of additional work-up, and the clinical relevance were used to describe breast findings, and we calculated 95 % exact confidence intervals (CIs).
Results:
440 body MRI of 440 women (mean age: 57 ± 20 years) included breast tissue in the field-of-view. A total of 41 breast findings were identified in 41 patients. Breast findings were classified BI-RADS 2 N = 25, BI-RADS 3 N = 13, BI-RADS 4 N = 3. A total of 3.6 % [95 % CI 1.6 %, 5.6 %] women with breast tissue visible on MRI had a recommendation for further imaging work-up for a breast finding. The 18.7 % (3 of 16) of these patients had a clinically important finding (breast cancer). Further imaging evaluation increased costs of €108.3 per patient with a breast finding.
Conclusions:
Clinically important breast findings could be detected on body MRI in up to 0.7 % (3 of 440) of women.
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