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The Adjacent Vessel on Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Breast MRI

¹ Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Jena, Jena 07747, Germany.
² Present address: Institut für Diagnostische, Interventionelle und Pädiatrische Radiologie, Inselspital, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland.
³ Present address: Institute of Radiology, Suedharz-Hospital, Nordhausen, Germany.

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether an adjacent vessel leading to an enhancing lesion seen on subtraction images can help differentiate malignant from benign breast lesions and therefore increase the specificity of breast MRI.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The study included 132 histologically verified lesions (71 malignant lesions, 10 pure carcinoma in situ, and 51 benign lesions) enhancing on dynamic breast MRI before biopsy. The lesions were evaluated by three radiologists in a double-blinded manner. The presence of an adjacent vessel was supposed if at least two observers voted positively.

RESULTS. Sixty-one (85.9%) of 71 malignant lesions, six (60%) of 10 carcinomas in situ, and 10 (19.6%) of 51 benign lesions were associated with an adjacent vessel, which differed significantly (p < 0.001) between benign and malignant lesions (the latter with and without including pure carcinoma in situ), leading to a positive predictive value of 85.9% (87% including pure carcinomas in situ), a negative predictive value of 80.4% (74.5% including pure carcinomas in situ), an accuracy of 83.2% (81.6% including pure carcinomas in situ), a sensitivity of 85.9% (82.7% including carcinomas in situ), and a specificity of 80.4% for this sign concerning malignancy.

CONCLUSION. The presence of an adjacent vessel seen on subtraction images promises to be a good marker for malignancy and can therefore help increase the specificity of breast MRI.

Keywords: angiogenesis • breast • breast cancer • breast MRI • MRI • oncology

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