Objective: To measure background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) and compare with other contrast enhancement values and diffusion-weighted MRI parameters in healthy and cancerous breast tissue at the clinical level.
Materials and methods: This HIPAA-compliant, IRB approved retrospective study enrolled 77 patients (38 patients with breast cancer - mean age 51.8 ± 10.0 years; 39 high-risk patients for screening evaluation - mean age 46.3 ± 11.7 years), who underwent contrast-enhanced 3T breast MRI. Contrast enhanced MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging were performed to quantify BPE, lesion contrast enhancement, and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) metrics in fibroglandular tissue (FGT) and lesions.
Results: BPE did not correlate with ADC values. Mean BPE for the lesion-bearing patients was higher (43.9%) compared to that of the high-risk screening patients (28.3%, p=0.004). Significant correlation (r=0.37, p<0.05) was found between BPE and lesion contrast enhancement.
Conclusion: No significant association was observed between parenchymal or lesion enhancement with conventional apparent diffusion metrics, suggesting that proliferative processes are not co-regulated in cancerous and parenchymal tissue.
Keywords: 3 Tesla; Background parenchymal enhancement; Breast MR; Diffusion-weighted imaging; Dynamic contrast enhancement.
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