[Consensus Meeting of Course Directors in Breast Imaging, 7 May 2011, in Frankfurt am Main--topic: MRI of the breast]

Abstract

Purpose: The general gap in the BIRADS lexicon between lesion description and categorization leads to very different recommendations in clinical breast radiology. This is particularly true for breast MRI. The third consensus meeting of course directors in breast imaging aimed at an increase in standardization of breast MRI.

Materials and methods: Between 166 and 344 participants in the audience (A) and 9 and 13 expert panel participants (P) took part in an electronic wireless voting system. The audience consisted of 98% radiologists and 2% gynecologists (A: n=295; P: n=12: radiologists 92%/gynecologists 8%). Of all participants, 62% had more than 10 years of experience in breast imaging and only 9% had less than 3 years of experience (P: 100%>10 years of experience). The day before 44, clinically relevant, though unresolved questions were formulated by the expert panel. For the evaluation a distinction was made between answers with a great majority (>75%), simple majority (50-<75%) and no majority (<50%) as well as answers from the expert panel and answers from the audience.

Results: Of 44 questions, all but two were answered with simple or great majority.

Conclusion: Technique, reporting and clinical use are becoming more and more accurately defined in MRI of the breast and MR-guided interventions. The third consensus meeting of this kind gained numerous answers and thus enables recommendations for didactic as well as clinical routine work.