Pineda FD, Medved M, Fan X, Ivancevic MK, Abe H, Shimauchi A, Newstead GM, Karczmar GS. Comparison of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI parameters of breast lesions at 1.5 and 3.0 T: a pilot study.
Br J Radiol 2015;
88:20150021. [PMID:
25785918 DOI:
10.1259/bjr.20150021]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
To compare dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI parameters from scans of breast lesions at 1.5 and 3.0 T.
METHODS
11 patients underwent paired MRI examinations in both Philips 1.5 and 3.0 T systems (Best, Netherlands) using a standard clinical fat-suppressed, T1 weighted DCE-MRI protocol, with 70-76 s temporal resolution. Signal intensity vs time curves were fit with an empirical mathematical model to obtain semi-quantitative measures of uptake and washout rates as well as time-to-peak enhancement (TTP). Maximum percent enhancement and signal enhancement ratio (SER) were also measured for each lesion. Percent differences between parameters measured at the two field strengths were compared.
RESULTS
TTP and SER parameters measured at 1.5 and 3.0 T were similar; with mean absolute differences of 19% and 22%, respectively. Maximum percent signal enhancement was significantly higher at 3 T than at 1.5 T (p = 0.006). Qualitative assessment showed that image quality was significantly higher at 3 T (p = 0.005).
CONCLUSION
Our results suggest that TTP and SER are more robust to field strength change than other measured kinetic parameters, and therefore measurements of these parameters can be more easily standardized than measurements of other parameters derived from DCE-MRI. Semi-quantitative measures of overall kinetic curve shape showed higher reproducibility than do discrete classification of kinetic curve early and delayed phases in a majority of the cases studied.
ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE
Qualitative measures of curve shape are not consistent across field strength even when acquisition parameters are standardized. Quantitative measures of overall kinetic curve shape, by contrast, have higher reproducibility.
Collapse