Quantification of breast stiffness using MR elastography at 3 Tesla with a soft sternal driver: A reproducibility...

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biophysics
• Radiology

Background:

• Previous breast magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) studies used 1.5 Tesla (T) with direct breast contact.
• Higher magnetic field strengths like 3T may offer improved MRE performance.
• Understanding breast stiffness is crucial for diagnosing and characterizing breast tissue.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate breast stiffness measurements and their reproducibility using a soft sternal driver at 3T.
• To compare 3T MRE stiffness measurements with qualitative measures of breast density.

Main Methods:

• Twenty-two healthy volunteers underwent two separate 3T MRE scans.
• MRE vibrations (60 Hz) were introduced via a soft sternal driver.
• Stiffness measurements were correlated with fibroglandular tissue amounts.

Main Results:

• Breast MRE demonstrated high reproducibility between scans (concordance correlation 0.87-0.91, P < 0.0001).
• Dense breasts exhibited significantly higher mean stiffness (0.96 kPa center slice) than nondense breasts (0.85 kPa center slice, P ≤ 0.05).
• Higher fibroglandular tissue content correlated with increased stiffness measurements.

Conclusions:

• Breast MRE is a reproducible imaging technique at 3T when using a soft sternal driver.
• Increased breast density is associated with significantly higher stiffness values.
• 3T MRE shows potential for quantitative assessment of breast tissue characteristics.