The Research on Distinguishing Benign From Malignant Breast Lesions by Diffusion Weighted MR Imaging

Objective To investigate the value of apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC)of diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) in distinguishing malignant from benign breast lesions. Materials and Methods DWI of 43 cases of suspected breast tumors were analyzed retrospectivelty. ADC in 24 normal breasts,24 malignant breast lesions,and 23 benign breast lesions confirmed by post-operation pathology were calculated respectively,and their differences were compared. The differences of different ADCs (b=600,750,1000 s/mm2)were also compared. SE-EPI (TR 3650ms-4200ms,TE 80.5-90.3ms,thickness 5 mm) was used in order to acquire the imaging. Results There were significant differences among the ADC values of normal breast tissue,benign,and malignant lesions (F=101.113,P0.0001). The ADC of malignant lesions was lower than those of normal breast tissue and benign lesions(P0.0001),and the ADC of benign lesions was lower than that of normal breast tissue(P0.0001).There were significant differences among the ADC value of the three b value groups (F=15.539,P0.0001).The lower the b value,the higher the ADC(P0.05).Under the b value of b=600,750,1000 s/mm2,the sensitivity were 91.7%,70.8% and 79.1% respectively,and specificity 89.4%,89.4% and 93.6% respectively,and the accuracy were 93.0%,69.0% and 88.7% respectively,of ADC for the diagnosis of malignant lesion if the upper bound of 95% confidence interval was set as a differential leve1. Conclusion The differentiation of malignant from benign breast lesions by ADC is applicable,the sensitivity,the specificity and the accuracy are high.