Quantification of background enhancement in breast magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

To present a novel technique for measuring tissue enhancement in breast fibroglandular tissue regions on contrast-enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) aimed at quantifying the enhancement of breast parenchyma, also known as "background enhancement." Our quantitative method for measuring breast MRI background enhancement was evaluated in a population of 16 healthy volunteers. We also demonstrate the use of our new technique in the case study of one subject classified as high risk for developing breast cancer who underwent 3 months of tamoxifen therapy. We obtained quantitative measures of background enhancement in all cases. The high-risk patient exhibited a 37% mean reduction in background enhancement with treatment. Our quantitative method is a robust and promising tool that may allow investigators to quantify and document the potential adverse effect of background enhancement on diagnostic accuracy in larger populations.