Independent component analysis for the examination of dynamic contrast-enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging data: preliminary study.
OBJECTIVE
An application of independent component analysis (ICA) is reported for the detection and characterization of breast lesions in dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI. The ICA technique, which uses a novel statistical algorithm to separate mixed signal sources of unknown nature, enables the extraction of spatial and temporal features of dynamic MRI data.


METHODS
Six patients with confirmed lesion diagnosis (three with malignancy and three with benign condition) participated in this study. T1-weighted MRI covering both breast volumes was dynamically acquired in every 90 seconds after the bolus injection of contrast media using three-dimensional fast low-angle shot sequence (3-D FLASH).


RESULTS
With the application of the ICA, differential signal responses were delineated from benign and malignant lesions, and areas with high temporal correlations with the extracted signal components were selectively visualized.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that ICA allowed for an identification of lesion morphology and lesion-specific dynamic enhancement patterns.
Yoo
Seung-Schik
SS
Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. yoo@bwh.harvard.edu
Gil Choi
Byung
B
Han
Ji-Youn
JY
Hee Kim
Hak
H
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D003287:Contrast Media; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D003287:Contrast Media