Comparison of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and JH-MRS in differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions

Objective: To compare dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI and proton spectroscopy (¹H-MRS) for differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions. Methods: 63 women with 83 suspicious breast lesions seen on mammography or ultrasound examinations underwent DCE MRI. 58 breast lesions were also examined with ¹H-MRS. The MR findings were compared with histology. Results: Of 83 lesions on DCE MRI, 46 were malignant and 37 benign. Of 58 lesions on ¹H-MRS, 32 were malignant and 26 were benign. The sensitivities, specificities and accuracy of morphological diagnosis were 73.9% (34/46), 94.6% (35/37), 85.5% (71/83), respectively without significant difference from those of time signal intensity curves [93.5% (43/46), 73% (35/37), 84.3%(70/83) and those of MRS [65.6%(21/32) 84.6%(22/26) 74.1%(43/58). Conclusions: DCE MRI has high sensitivity for differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions. The specificity and accuracy can be improved by integrating with morphological features and MRS. (authors)