Diffusion-weighted MR imaging of the breast: Advantages and pitfalls

Effects of magnetic field strength and b value on the sensitivity and specificity of quantitative breast diffusion-weighted MRI

“…The fact that significantly lower ADC mean values were found in the same patients in our study when using b =1,500 s/mm 2 compared to when using b =1,000 s/mm 2 and that reduced SNR was consistently noted in images at the higher b value (Figure 3) indicates that the measurement of ADC in breast although the sensitivity became significantly worse. DWI has been found useful in differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions (6,9). The contrast and signal intensity of a DWI image are dependent on the selected b value.…”

“…There is currently no consensus in regard to which b value would yield the best diagnostic performance for the detection and characterization of breast malignancy (9). While some investigators have suggested that higher quality DWI and ADC maps are achieved with a b value of 850 s/mm 2 (10), others have concluded that high b values (e.g., 1,500) result in better image contrast between various malignant breast lesions, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and benign lesions (11,12).…”

Evaluation of Apparent Diffusion Coefficient to Predict Grade, Microinvasion, and Invasion in Ductal Carcinoma In Situ of the Breast

“…The most common measure evaluated using DWI is apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), a measure of the rate of water movement. Various factors can influence the ADC value, including the specific pulse sequence, b values, magnetic field strength, application of diffusion gradients before or after contrast administration, the nature of the lesion, and the physiological variation of the breast (12).…”

Tracking the Mammary Architectural Features and Detecting Breast Cancer with Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Tensor Imaging

“…Currently it is used for special cases, such as high risk patients 4 , but not for routine screening, presumably because of the high costs, the need to use an injection of a contrast agent, the lack of standardization and the variable specificity in differentiating benign from malignant lesions ranging from low/moderate values 5,6 to high values that were obtained using combined mammography and DCE-MRI 7,8 . More recently, diffusion weighted MRI and the resulting maps of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) have been evaluated as a complement method to DCE-MRI and it was shown that ADC values can help distinguish between cancers, benign lesions and normal breast tissue 9,10 . In addition, studies of breast diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were initiated in healthy volunteers and patients with breast lesions at field strength of 1.5 T [11][12][13][14][15] and of 3 T [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] .…”