Size assessment of breast lesions by means of a computer-aided detection (CAD) system for magnetic resonance mammography

Purpose

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a dedicated software tool for automated volume measurement of breast lesions in contrast-enhanced (CE) magnetic resonance mammography (MRM).

Material and methods

The size of 52 breast lesions with a known histopathological diagnosis (three benign, 49 malignant) was automatically evaluated using different techniques. The volume of all lesions was measured automatically (AVM) from CE 3D MRM examinations by means of a computer-aided detection (CAD) system and compared with the size estimates based on maximum diameter measurement (MDM) on MRM, ultrasonography (US), mammography and histopathology.

Results

Compared with histopathology as the reference method, AVM understimated lesion size by 4% on average. This result was similar to MDM (3% understimation, not significantly different) but significantly better than US and mammographic lesion measurements (24% and 33% size underestimation, respectively).

Conclusions

AVM is as accurate as MDM but faster. Both methods are more accurate for size assessment of breast lesions compared with US and mammography.