THE ROLE OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE MAMMOGRAPHY AND MAGNETIC RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY IN THE DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF BREAST TUMORS

Abstract

Objective: to investigate the possibility of enhancing the efficiency of complex magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, including MR mammography with dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and MR spectroscopy for the differential diagnosis of breast tumors.Material and methods. The investigation enrolled 87 patients with breast tumors and 15 healthy volunteers. The mean age of the examinees was 55.7±3.5 years. MR mammography with dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and subsequent morphological diagnosis verification were performed in 100% of cases. MR spectroscopy was carried out in 93.1% of the patients with breast tumors.Results. There were 189 breast tumors, including 154 (81.5%) and 35 (18.5%) hypervascular and avascular ones, respectively. MR mammography could reveal only 36% of the hypervascular masses. The sensitivity of contrast-enhanced MR mammography was 97.1%, and the specificity was variable. Its specificity was 96.9% for BIRADS 2 and BIRADS 5 and 45% and 55% for BIRADS 4 and BIRADS 3, respectively. MR spectroscopy in addition to MR mammography could increase the overall specificity of the technique up to 98.3%.Conclusion. Comprehensive MR examination that involves MR mammography with dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and MR spectroscopy makes it possible to visualize breast tissues, to identify additional masses, to investigate not only the morphological, but also chemical structure of the identified tumors, which allows the most precise differential diagnosis between benign and malignant lesions.

Keywords

• magnetic resonance mammography
• magnetic resonance spectroscopy
• breast cancer
• breast tumors
• differential diagnosis