Breast MR Imaging: Performance, Reporting with BI-RADS, and Pitfalls in Interpretation

摘要

Breast magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is best used for patients with known cancer or those at high risk for developing cancer. Selection of appropriate patients is crucial. Having a clear list of indications can educate referring clinicians. It may be helpful to have a "point" radiologist who is responsible for approving examinations until the referring clinicians develop a sense of appropriate reasons for MR imaging referral. If starting out, it may be useful to image patients with known cancers to develop a sense of confi dence and build a knowledge base. These patients are probably going to the operating room regardless, and additional information that the MR imaging examination provides may help their treatment. To optimize the breast MR imaging examination with use of the chosen sequence on your imager, there will be some necessary training of the technologists and experimenting with the sequence. This is to be expected when starting a new service and may need to be factored into time allotments on the schedule. Until the process becomes streamlined and second nature to the technologists (consider "batching" breast MR imaging examinations), monitoring of the examinations will most likely be needed. A certain critical caseload may need to be in place until confi dence in the reproducibility of the examination is assured.