Diagnostic Accuracy of Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Characterizing Lung Masses

Imaging plays a critical role not only in the detection, but also in the characterization of lung masses as benign or malignant.

To determine the diagnostic accuracy of dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant lung masses.

Ninety-four masses were included in this prospective study. Five dynamic series of T1-weighted spoiled gradient echo (FFE) images were obtained, followed by a T1-weighted FFE sequence in the late phase (5_th minutes). Contrast enhancement patterns in the early (25_th second) and late (5_th minute) phase images were evaluated. For the quantitative evaluation, signal intensity (SI)-time curves were obtained and the maximum relative enhancement, wash-in rate, and time-to-peak enhancement of masses in both groups were calculated.

The early phase contrast enhancement patterns were homogeneous in 78.2% of the benign masses, while heterogeneous in 74.4% of the malignant tumors. On the late phase images, 70.8% of the benign masses showed homogeneous enhancement, while most of the malignant masses showed heterogeneous enhancement (82.4%). During the first pass, the maximum relative enhancement and wash-in rate values of malignant masses were significantly higher than those of the benign masses (P = 0.03 and 0.04, respectively). The cutoff value at 15% yielded a sensitivity of 85.4%, specificity of 61.2%, and positive predictive value of 68.7% for the maximum relative enhancement.

Contrast enhancement patterns and SI-time curve analysis of MRI are helpful in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant lung masses.