Purpose: To prospectively evaluate the accuracy of high-resolution (HR)-MRI as a secondary examination in women with abnormal calcifications detected on mammography.
Materials and methods: We used a 4.7-cm microscopy coil to acquire HR-MRI signal data. We examined 52 women with breast lesions preoperatively using HR-MRI and vacuum-assisted core needle biopsy. The lesions were suspicious of malignancy, classified as category 3-5 on mammography (Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System [BI-RADS]), and without a palpable mass. All visualized suspicious lesions were correlated with histological findings. We compared the HR-MRI and pathological findings and calculated the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy.
Results: We compared the breast HR-MRI results with the gold standard of pathological results for studies of malignancy (DCIS and invasive cancer), and found a sensitivity of 88.5%, specificity of 92.3%, and accuracy of 90.4%. The positive predictive value (PPV) was 92%, and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 88.9%. When breast MRI was compared with pathological results for studies that diagnosed DCIS only, the results revealed a sensitivity of 88.6%, specificity of 88.2%, accuracy of 88.5%, PPV of 93.9%, and NPV of 78.9%.
Conclusion: HR-MRI using a microscopy coil is a useful, reliable, safe, and minimally invasive procedure that is a good choice for secondary assessment of abnormal calcification in the breast.