Ultrafast Bilateral DCE-MRI of the Breast with Conventional Fourier Sampling: Preliminary Evaluation of Semi-quantitative Analysis

Federico D. Pineda, Milica Medved, Shiyang Wang, Xiaobing Fan, David V Schacht, Charlene Sennett, Aytekin Oto, Gillian M. Newstead, Hiroyuki Abe, Gregory S. Karczmar*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

65 Scopus citations

Abstract

Rationale and Objectives The study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and advantages of a combined high temporal and high spatial resolution protocol for dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of the breast. Materials and Methods Twenty-three patients with enhancing lesions were imaged at 3T. The acquisition protocol consisted of a series of bilateral, fat-suppressed “ultrafast” acquisitions, with 6.9- to 9.9-second temporal resolution for the first minute following contrast injection, followed by four high spatial resolution acquisitions with 60- to 79.5-second temporal resolution. All images were acquired with standard uniform Fourier sampling. A filtering method was developed to reduce noise and detect significant enhancement in the high temporal resolution images. Time of arrival (TOA) was defined as the time at which each voxel first satisfied all the filter conditions, relative to the time of initial arterial enhancement. Results Ultrafast images improved visualization of the vasculature feeding and draining lesions. A small percentage of the entire field of view (<6%) enhanced significantly in the 30 seconds following contrast injection. Lesion conspicuity was highest in early ultrafast images, especially in cases with marked parenchymal enhancement. Although the sample size was relatively small, the average TOA for malignant lesions was significantly shorter than the TOA for benign lesions. Significant differences were also measured in other parameters descriptive of early contrast media uptake kinetics (P < 0.05). Conclusions Ultrafast imaging in the first minute of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of the breast has the potential to add valuable information on early contrast dynamics. Ultrafast imaging could allow radiologists to confidently identify lesions in the presence of marked background parenchymal enhancement.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1137-1144
Number of pages8
JournalAcademic radiology
Volume23
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2016

Keywords

  • DCE-MRI
  • breast imaging
  • high temporal resolution
  • lesion kinetics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

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