Development and Validation of a Diagnostic Model for Enhancing Lesions on Breast MRI: Based on Kaiser Score

This study aims to develop and validate a new diagnostic model based on the Kaiser score for preoperative diagnosis of the malignancy probability of enhancing lesions on breast MRI.

This study collected consecutive inpatient data (including imaging data, clinical data, and pathological data) from two different institutions. All patients underwent preoperative breast Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DCE-MRI) examinations and were found to have enhancing lesions. These lesions were confirmed as benign or malignant by surgical resection or biopsy pathology (all carcinomas in situ were confirmed by pathology after surgical resection). Data from one institution were used as the training set(284 cases), and data from the other institution were used as the validation set(107 cases). The Kaiser score was directly incorporated into the diagnostic model as a single predictive variable. Other predictive variables were screened using Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression. Multivariate logistic regression was employed to integrate the Kaiser score and other selected predictive variables to construct a new diagnostic model, presented in the form of a nomogram. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, DeLong test, net reclassification improvement (NRI), and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) were adopted to evaluate and compare the discrimination of the diagnostic model for breast enhancing lesions based on Kaiser score (hereinafter referred to as the "breast lesion diagnostic model") and the Kaiser score alone. Calibration curves were used to assess the calibration of the breast lesion diagnostic model, and decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to evaluate the clinical efficacy of the diagnostic model and the Kaiser score.

LASSO regression indicated that, besides the indicators already included in the Kaiser score system, "age", "MIP sign", "associated imaging features", and "clinical breast examination (CBE) results" were other valuable diagnostic parameters for breast enhancing lesions. In the training set, the AUCs of the breast lesion diagnostic model and the Kaiser score were 0.948 and 0.869, respectively, with a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). In the validation set, the AUCs of the breast lesion diagnostic model and the Kaiser score were 0.956 and 0.879, respectively, with a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). The DeLong test, NRI, and IDI showed that the breast lesion diagnostic model had a higher discrimination ability for breast enhancing lesions compared to the Kaiser score alone, with statistically significant differences (p < 0.05). The calibration curves indicated good calibration of the breast lesion diagnostic model. DCA demonstrated that the breast lesion diagnostic model had higher clinical application value, with greater net clinical benefit over a wide range of diagnostic thresholds compared to the Kaiser score.

The Kaiser score-based breast lesion diagnostic model, which integrates "age," "MIP sign", "associated imaging features", and "CBE results", can be used for the preoperative diagnosis of the malignancy probability of breast enhancing lesions, and it outperforms the classic Kaiser score in terms of diagnostic performance for such lesions.