Accuracy of Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DCE-MRI) in Detecting Breast Tumors

Aims: To evaluate the accuracy of dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) in characterizing breast tumors.

Study Design: This prospective study included 254 patients (4 males and 250 females; ages range between 15-78 years) underwent breast MRI examination.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted in different MRI medical centers in Khartoum, Sudan between June 2014 and July 2016.

Methodology: Patients were examined using two sequences of MRI; routine-MRI and DCE-MRI. Signal intensities were evaluated from different MRI sequences in different tumors; the histopathology result was used as a reference for each case.

Results: The sensitivity and specificity of DCE-MRI were (82.6%) and (73.2%) respectively. In addition, breast cancer was more enhanced with fat suppression images. Image subtraction technique showed that breast cancer has heterogeneous features (89.9%), and ring enhancement was clearly seen on (8.7%).

Conclusion: The accuracy of MRI in this study was more than other imaging modalities in characterizing breast tumors. Therefore, it offers a new method to detect breast cancer in its early stage, and help improve the survival rate.