CLINICAL EVALUATION OF DIFFUSION WEIGHTED IMAGING OF BREAST MASSES IN FEMALE PATIENTS FROM BIHAR REGION

Abstract

Breast masses range from benign to malignant with varied etiologies. Fibroadenoma the Commonest benign and invasive ductal carcinomas are the commonest malignant lesions. Breast carcinoma is the most common and the second leading cause of deaths in women. It is present fully accepted that breast magnetic resonance is amongst the most sensitive diagnostic imaging techniques for breast lesions. DWI-MR (diffusion weighted magnetic resonance) provides new and different information about the biophysical properties of tissue. The consequent reduction of macroscopic motion effect makes possible the use of DWI in detection and characterization in breast MRI imaging. These facts and figures defines the need for early detection and treatment of breast for favourable prognosis. DWI has sufficient capacity to diagnose invasive, non-invasive breast lesions and has the ability to provide steady, high-resolution tissue images and there is a need to apply DWI to clinical practice while taking advantage of this high contrast resolution. Diffusion weighted Imaging is a potential resource as an adjuvant to breast MRI to differentiate benign from malignant lesions. Such sequence can be easily added to the standard breast magnetic resonance protocol.

The present study was planned in Department of Radio- Diagnosis, Katihar Medical College and Hospital, Katihar, Bihar, India. Total 20 cases of the breast lesions refereed to our hospital were evaluated in the present study. Those patients who had come for breast MRI examinations and were detected to have lesions greater than 1 cm in size were included in the study and DWI was performed after obtaining prior consent. Patients who were referred for mammography and sonomammography and who were detected to have solid lesions greater than 1 cm were also included in this study after obtaining prior consent; diffusion-weighted sequences were performed for these patients only to characterize the lesions detected on mammography and sonomammography.

The data generated from the present study concludes that DWI for breast lesions can differentiate benign from malignant lesions with a high sensitivity and specificity. The usefulness of this technique needs to be further evaluated with larger double-blind studies.

Keywords: Diffusion Weighted Imaging, DWI, Breast Masses, etc.