Intravoxel incoherent motion MR imaging for breast lesions: comparison and correlation with pharmacokinetic evaluation from dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging.

OBJECTIVES: To compare diagnostic performance for breast lesions by quantitative parameters derived from intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to explore whether correlations exist between these parameters.
METHODS: IVIM and DCE MRI were performed on a 1.5-T MRI scanner in patients with suspicious breast lesions. Thirty-six breast cancers and 23 benign lesions were included in the study. Quantitative parameters from IVIM (D, f and D*) and DCE MRI (Ktrans, Kep, Ve and Vp) were calculated and compared between malignant and benign lesions. Spearman correlation test was used to evaluate correlations between them.
RESULTS: D, f, D* from IVIM and Ktrans, Kep, Vp from DCE MRI were statistically different between breast cancers and benign lesions (p < 0.05, respectively) and D demonstrated the largest area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC = 0.917) and had the highest specificity (83 %). The f value was moderately statistically correlated with Vp (r = 0.692) and had a poor correlation with Ktrans (r = 0.456).
CONCLUSIONS: IVIM MRI is useful in the differentiation of breast lesions. Significant correlations were found between perfusion-related parameters from IVIM and DCE MRI. IVIM may be a useful adjunctive tool to standard MRI in diagnosing breast cancer. KEY POINTS: • IVIM provided diffusion as well as perfusion information • IVIM could help differential diagnosis of breast lesions • Correlations were found between perfusion-related parameters from IVIM and DCE MRI.