Objective: To determine whether MRI allows safe and accurate guidance for biopsies of renal masses.
Materials and methods: Between May 2010 and September 2013, 26 patients (15 men and 11 women) with 26 renal masses underwent MRI-guided percutaneous biopsy. For each patient, we retrospectively collected the epidemiological, procedural and histopathological data.
Results: Mean size of tumour was 3.6 cm (range 0.6 - 9 cm). Mean procedure time was 48 minutes (range 37 - 70 min). Malignancy was found in the percutaneous samples in 81 % (21/26) of the masses. All these cases were considered as true positive biopsies. Benignity was found in the percutaneous samples in 5/26 (19 %) of the masses but was confirmed only in 3 cases. The other 2 cases included one false negative case and one undetermined biopsy, as patient was lost to follow-up. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and accuracy of this study were 95.4 %, 100 %, 100 %, 75 % and 96 %, respectively
Conclusion: MRI-guidance is safe and accurate to target renal masses.