Role of magnetic resonance spectroscopy in evaluation of breast masses

Abstract

Background Early detection followed by appropriate treatment is currently the most effective strategy to reduce breast cancer mortality. New techniques must provide more precise evaluation of the indeterminate lesions. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is one of the available new techniques on MRI. It represents a noninvasive and nonionizing method of characterizing a user-selected volume of tissue based on the metabolic (chemical) content. Aim The aim was to assess the role of in-vivo proton MRS in diagnosis, characterization, and differentiation between benign and malignant breast masses. Patients and methods In this study, 40 female patients were examined by MRI using the multiphase dynamic sequence and proton MRS using magnets of intensity field 1.5 Tesla systems. Single-voxel technique after adequate shimming was used. Results Thirty (62.5%) cases were malignant (based on the presence of high choline peak in the spectrum) and 18 (37.5%) cases were benign (no choline peak). MRS has increased the specificity of dynamic MRI for diagnosis of probable lesion from 76.5 to 94.1%. False-positive results were found in one case, and false-negative results were found in two cases. Conclusion In-vivo proton MRS is a powerful method for characterizing indeterminate breast lesions based on the presence of a high choline peak in the spectrum.