Fat fractions from high-resolution 3D radial Dixon MRI for predicting metastatic axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer patients

European Journal of Radiology Open
Thomas Winther BuusErik Morre Pedersen

Abstract

To assess diagnostic performance of fat fractions (FF) from high-resolution 3D radial Dixon MRI for differentiating metastatic and non-metastatic axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer patients. High-resolution 3D radial Dixon MRI was prospectively performed on 1.5 T in 70 biopsy-verified breast cancer patients. 35 patients were available for analysis with histopathologic and imaging data. FF images were calculated as fat / in-phase. Two radiologists measured lymph node FF and assessed morphological features in one ipsilateral and one contralateral lymph node in consensus. Diagnostic performance of lymph node FF and morphological criteria were compared using histopathology as reference. 22 patients had metastatic axillary lymph nodes. Mean lymph node FF were 0.20 ± 0.073, 0.31 ± 0.079, and 0.34 ± 0.15 (metastatic, non-metastatic ipsi- and non-metastatic contralateral lymph nodes, respectively). Metastatic lymph node FF were significantly lower than non-metastatic ipsi- (p <  0.001) and contralateral lymph nodes (p <  0.001). Area under the receiver operating characteristics curve for lymph node FF was 0.80 compared to 0.76 for morphological criteria (p =  0.29). Lymph node FF yielded sensitivity 0.91, specificity 0.69, positive ...Continue Reading

Methods Mentioned

BETA
biopsy
dissection

Software Mentioned

STATA Statistics
Osirix Dicom viewer

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