Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis or Breast Cancer? A Comparative MRI Study in Patients Presenting with Non-Mass...

To compare and determine discriminative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) and breast cancer (BC) that present as non-mass enhancement.

This retrospective study includes 68 IGM and 75 BC cases that presented with non-mass enhancement on breast MRI. All patients with a previous history of breast surgery, radiotherapy, or chemotherapy due to BC or a previous history of mastitis were excluded. On MRI images, presence of architectural distortion skin thickening, edema, hyperintense ducts containing protein, dilated fat-containing ducts and axillary adenopathies were noted. Cysts with enhancing walls, lesion size, lesion location, fistulas, distribution, internal enhancement pattern and kinetic features of non-mass enhancement were recorded. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were calculated. Pearson chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, independent t test and Mann-Whitney U test were used as needed for statistical analysis and comparison. Multivariate logistic regression model was used to determine the independent predictors.

IGM patients were significantly younger than BC patients (p < 0.001). Cysts with thin (p < 0.05) or thick walls (p = 0.001), multiple cystic lesions, (p < 0.001), cystic lesions draining to the skin (p < 0.001), and skin fistulas (p < 0.05) were detected more often in IGM. Central (p < 0.05) and periareolar (p < 0.001) location and focal skin thickening (p < 0.05) were significantly more common in IGM. Architectural distortion (p = 0.001) and diffuse skin thickening (p < 0.05) were associated with BC. Multiple regional distribution was more common in IGM, whereas diffuse distribution and clumped enhancement were more common in BC (p < 0.05). In kinetic analysis, persistent enhancement was more common in IGM, whereas plateau and wash-out types were more common in BC (p < 0.001). Independent predictors for BC were age, diffuse skin thickening and kinetic curve types. There was no significant difference in the diffusion characteristics. Based on these findings, MRI had a sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 88%, 67.65%, and 78.32%, respectively, in differentiating IGM from BC.

In conclusion, for non-mass enhancement, MRI can rule out malignancy with a considerably high sensitivity; however, specificity is still low, as many IGM patients have overlapping findings. Final diagnosis should be complemented with histopathology whenever necessary.