Fast temporal resolution dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI: Histogram analysis versus visual analysis for differentiating benign and malignant breast lesions

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to validate a kinetic assessment based on visually identified peak enhancement, which is routinely used in clinical practice, for differentiating benign from malignant lesions during fast dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Between January 2015 and December 2016, 90 consecutively registered patients with 105 breast lesions (40 benign, 65 malignant) underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced 1.5-T MRI that included one unenhanced and eight contrast-enhanced fast temporal resolution (10 seconds) whole-breast acquisitions. Histogram analysis was performed to measure the voxel-based enhancement of the entire lesion to obtain 90th, 75th, and 50th percentile values at each time point and to generate kinetic curves. Two observers selected visually identified peak enhancement within the lesions to generate the kinetic curves. The kinetic curves from histogram and visually identified peak enhancement analyses were fitted by means of an empiric mathematic model (EMM): ΔS(t) = A × (1 – e ^– α ^t ), where A is the upper limit of signal intensity, e indicates the exponential function, and α (min ^-1 ) is the rate of increase in signal intensity. The initial slope of the kinetic curve (A × α) and the initial AUC (AUC ₃₀ ) were calculated. These parameters were compared between benign and malignant lesions, and results from visually identified peak enhancement analysis were compared with those from histogram analysis. RESULTS. Benign lesions were successfully differentiated from malignant lesions in both visually identified peak enhancement and histogram analyses (90th and 75th percentile values) on the basis of α, A × α, and AUC ₃₀ from the EMM. There was no significant difference in ROC AUC in these EMM parameters between visually identified peak enhancement and histogram analyses (p = 0.21). CONCLUSION. Kinetic assessment with visually identified peak enhancement was acceptable for differentiating benign from malignant lesions.