Improved visualization of breast lesions with gadolinium‐enhanced magnetization transfer MR imaging

摘要

AbstractA pulse sequence with magnetization transfer as the main contrast mechanism (MT‐FLASH) was developed for improved imaging of breast lesions that requires neither fat suppression nor postprocessing. After optimization of the sequence in phantom and volunteer studies, a clinical pilot study with 14 patients was performed. In carcinomas the relative signal increase after Gd‐DTPA administration was on average 34 in MT‐FLASH images compared with 169 in conventionalT1weighted (T1W) three‐dimensional FLASH images. In MT‐FLASH images, all lesions demonstrated a signal intensity higher than that of fat; in T1W images, all lesions have a lower signal intensity. The average postcontrast carcinoma‐to‐fat contrast‐to‐noise ratios were +11.6 and −14.2, respectively. The conspicutty of 12 of 13 carcinomas was improved in postcontrast MT‐FLASH images compared with postcontrast T1w images. Thus, MT‐FLASH imaging enables excellent visualization of Gd‐DTPA