The diagnosis value of diffusion-weighted MR imaging of breast lesions

Objective: To evaluate the value of apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC) of diffusion weighted MR imaging in diagnosing breast cancer.Methods: Fifty-six patients were enrolled in this study and verified by histopathology.The apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC) of malignant and benign lesions on DW-MRI were measured respectively,and their differentiations in statistics were compared.Results: There were significant differences in the ADC values of normal breast gland,benign and malignant lesions.The ADC of malignant lesions[(1.12±0.21)×10-3 mm2/s] was lower than those of normal breast gland and benign lesions.The 95% confidence interval for ADC means in malignant lesions:(0.754,1.106)×10-3 mm2/s respectively.If the upper bound of 95% confidence interval in malignant lesion was set as the Cut off value,the sensitivity,specificity of ADC value was 1.106×10-3 mm2/s for the diagnosis of malignant lesions were 91.7% and 85.7%.Conclusion: The sensitivity and specificity of DWI is high,which is helpful for the diagnosis of benign and malignant breast lesions and can be used as a conventional sequence.ADC value is an important parameter to diagnose breast lesions.