Computer-aided diagnosis in breast DCE-MRI--quantification of the heterogeneity of breast lesions

Purpose

In our study we aim at the quantification of the heterogeneity for differential diagnosis of breast lesions in MRI.

Materials and methods

We tested a software tool for quantification of heterogeneity. The software tool provides a three-dimensional analysis of the whole breast lesion. The lesions were divided in regions with similar perfusion characteristics. Voxels were merged to the same region, if the perfusion parameters (wash-in, wash-out, integral, peak enhancement and time to peak) correlated to 99%. We evaluated 68 lesions from 50 patients. 31 lesions proved to be benign (45.6%) and 37 malignant (54.4%). We included small lesions which could only be detected with MRI.

Results

The analysis of heterogeneity showed significant differences (p < 0.005; AUC 0.7). Malignant lesions were more heterogeneous than benign ones. Significant differences were also found for morphologic parameters such as shape (p < 0.001) and margin (p < 0.007). The analysis of the enhancement dynamics did not prove successful in lesion discrimination.

Conclusion

Our study indicates that the region analysis for quantification of heterogeneity may be a helpful additional method to differentiate benign lesions from malignant ones.