[MR mammography: current status and indications]

Several reports in the literature have demonstrated a promising role for MR imaging when used as an adjunct to mammography for the detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. There are many technical factors that must be considered, including dynamic imaging with subtraction, high resolution and fat suppression. Proven indications for MR mammography include patients suspicious of having cancer recurrence after breast conservation treatment and patients suspicious of having breast implant rupture. Potential clinical applications include differentiating benign from malignant lesions, detecting cancer when results of conventional imaging are equivocal, staging newly diagnosed breast cancer, detecting occult cancer in patients presenting with axillary node metastasis, determining chemotherapy induced tumor response, detecting residual tumor after incomplete surgical excision. Several investigators have demonstrated that MR imaging can provide extremely high sensitivity for detection of breast cancer. There are pitfalls, however, secondary to false positive and false negative contrast enhancement. Awareness of the strengths and limitations of MR imaging of the breast will facilitate integration of this technique into the work-up of patients with suspicious breast lesions.