Aims and objectives
A new technology in mammography,
known as Contrast-Enhanced Spectral Mammography (CESM),
is affirming itself as a valide alternative to the breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) since combines digital mammography (DM) with the benefits of contrast imaging [1,2].
This technique allows the acquisition of multiple views performed in dual-energy exposure after a single injection of a iodinated contrast medium (CM) [3].
In this way,
low- (LE) and high-energy (HE) images are obtained: the first images are the same properties os digital mammograms,
while the second ones...
Methods and materials
Patient dataset:
Between March 2017 and April 2018,
65 patient (aged between 35 and 79 years) underwent both MRI and CESM examinations at I.R.C.C.S.
Istituto Tumori "Giovanni Paolo II" of Bari (Italy).
For each patient,
the exams were performed with a temporal range of 15 days from each other.
Primary and secondary (where present) lesions were detected and 71 findings were resulted and extracted.
Then,
each case was classified according to BPE classification (ACR BIRADS),
both in MRI and CESM,
as minimal (class I: <...
Results
For each patient,
the BPE degree was considered both in CESM and MRI images (Fig.
3): no evident correlation between BPE degree and menstrual cycle,
patter and breast density were found in CESM.
Then,
a BIRADS score was assigned to all of detected lesions for both CESM and MRI findings.
As result,
the BIRADS distributions,
shown in Figure 4,
were obtained.Moreover,
4 findings were detected and affected by a high BPE in degree for both methods.
All of the 74 malignancy suspicious lesions detected on...
Conclusion
Both CESM and MRI were reliable methods to identify breast lesions.
In this study,
CESM has detected all of malignancy suspicious lesions,
whileMRI showed a greater number of false positives than CESM.
These resultsare in agreement with some earlier studies [5,6,12-14]: they have shown that CESM is a valid technique able to detect malignant tumors because of contrast enhancement,
such as to cancer ehnancement in MRI.
CESM exams resulted less affected by hormonal effects than MRI,
where they may produce a certain number of false...
Personal information
Multidisciplinary group of National Cancer Center "Giovanni Paolo II" andInterdisciplinary Department of Medicine,
Section of Diagnostic Imaging,
“Aldo Moro” University of Bari Medical School,
Bari,
Italy.
The group deals with research in radiology and health physics,
in particular image analysis.
Contact:
Daniele La Forgia,
MD
[email protected]
Marco Moschetta,
MD
[email protected]
References
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Rossi F,
Signori A,
Sormani MP,
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Calabrese M,
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(2017).
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et al.
(2015).
Comparison between breast MRI and contrast-enhanced spectral mammography.Medical science monitor: international...