To develop an optimized interpretation strategy of dynamic contrast enhanced breast MRI based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative criteria, the features of 120 histopathologically verified lesions were retrospectively analysed on contrast enhanced dynamically acquired (before and 1, 2, 4 and 7 min following injection of 0.2 mmol kg-1 gadolinium-DOTA) three-dimensional gradient echo images. Quantitative criteria, based on relative signal intensity measurements and qualitative morphological features, including lesion shape, margins and enhancement patterns were analysed in regard to differentiating malignant (n = 70) from benign (n = 50) lesions. Quantitative assessment of enhancement profiles was most accurate when analysis was based on early 1 min measurements. Using a 90% threshold, sensitivity and specificity in detecting breast cancer were 83% and 66%, respectively. When based on qualitative morphological analysis alone, sensitivity and specificity were 83% and 54%. Combined quantitative and qualitative assessment yielded a considerably higher sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 93%, 74% and 85%, respectively. In conclusion, results from dynamic contrast enhanced breast MRI can be improved by basing the interpretation on both quantitative and qualitative criteria.
The detection of characteristic radiographic signs in CAPD patients presenting with symptoms of intestinal obstruction may suggest the presence of severe SP and should lead to cautious surgical interventions.
The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic performance of conventional mammography and dynamic contrast-enhanced fast 3D gradient-echo (GRE) MRI regarding the detection and characterization of breast lesions relative to histopathologic analysis and to assess the results of a combined evaluation of both methods. fifty consecutive patients with 63 histopathologically verified breast lesions underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced GRE MRI in addition to routine conventional mammography. All lesions were classified by both methods on a five-point scale as benign or malignant, and the results were correlated to histopathology. Conventional mammography and dynamic MRI yielded a sensitivity and specificity of 82 and 64 %, and 92 and 76 %, respectively. The difference between the results was statistically not significant (p > 0.05) with areas under the receiver-operating-characteristics curves of 0.807 for mammography and 0.906 for MR imaging. Combination of the results of both methods slightly increased the sensitivity for detection of breast cancer to 95 % but decreased specificity to 52 %. In this selected patient subset, including only patients referred for excisional biopsy, contrast-enhanced dynamic MRI proved more sensitive and specific than conventional mammography regarding the detection of malignancy. While a combination of both methods yields a slightly improved sensitivity, specificity is vastly reduced.
Dynamic contrast-enhanced 3D MRA of the pulmonary arteries can be used to delineate pulmonary arterial angiosarcomas preoperatively. Considerable variability of contrast agent uptake reflects the wide histologic behavior of these masses in differentiation from central pulmonary embolism.
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