Breast cancer: gadolinium-enhanced MR imaging with a 0.5-T open imager and three-point Dixon technique.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the three-point Dixon technique as a method for obtaining fat-nulled images of contrast material-enhancing breast lesions with a 0.5-T open magnetic resonance (MR) imager.


METHODS
Real and imaginary source images were obtained with an interleaved gradient-echo sequence with a repetition time of 550 msec and echo times of 12.8, 19.8, and 26.8 msec. Twenty-four to 28 sections were obtained in the sagittal plane with a 90 degrees flip angle, 256 x 192 matrix, 3-4.5-mm section thickness, and acquisition time of 10 minutes 54 seconds. A three-point Dixon reconstruction algorithm was used to generate water-specific, fat-specific, and combined images from the raw image data. Twelve breasts in 10 patients and one healthy volunteer were imaged.


RESULTS
Three-point Dixon images were superior to extended two-point Dixon and fat-suppressed images and to images generated by means of subtraction of three-dimensional fast spoiled gradient-echo images obtained before contrast material injection from those obtained after.


CONCLUSIONS
Three-point Dixon imaging provides a robust method for creating fat-nulled images of enhancing breast lesions in the 0.5-T open MR environment. Water-specific three-point Dixon images are successful in regions of B0 heterogeneity and are superior to fat-suppressed images. They are much less susceptible to motion artifact than are subtraction images.
Daniel
B L
BL
Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Lucas MRS Imaging Center, CA 94305-5488, USA.
Butts
K
K
Glover
G H
GH
Cooper
C
C
Herfkens
R J
RJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001940:Breast / Q000473:pathology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged
D003287:Contrast Media; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA