Magnetic resonance imaging features of fibrocystic change of the breast.
OBJECTIVE
Studies specifically reporting MRI of fibrocystic change (FCC) of the breast are very few and its MRI features are not clearly known. The purpose of this study was to analyze the MRI features of FCC of the breast.


METHODS
Thirty-one patients with pathologically proven FCC of the breast were retrospectively reviewed. The MRI study was performed using a 1.5-T MR scanner with standard bilateral breast coil. The imaging protocol consisted of pre-contrast T1-weighed imaging and dynamic contrast-enhanced axial T1-weighed imaging. The MRI features were interpreted based on the morphologic and enhancement kinetic descriptors defined on ACR BIRADS-MRI lexicon.


RESULTS
FCC of the breast had a wide spectrum of morphologic and kinetic features on MRI. Two types of FCC were found, including a more diffuse type of nonmass lesion (12/31, 39%) showing benign enhancement kinetic pattern with medium wash-in in early phase (9/10, 90%) and a focal mass-type lesion (11/31, 35%) with enhancement kinetic usually showing rapid up-slope mimicking a breast cancer (8/11, 73%).


CONCLUSIONS
MRI is able to elaborate the diverse imaging features of FCC of the breast. Our result showed that FCC presenting as a focal mass-type lesion was usually overdiagnosed as malignancy. Understanding MRI of FCC is important to determine which cohort of patients should be followed up alone or receive aggressive management.
Chen
Jeon-Hor
JH
Tu and Yuen Center for Functional Onco-Imaging, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-5020, USA. jeonhc@uci.edu
Liu
Hui
H
Baek
Hyeon-Man
HM
Nalcioglu
Orhan
O
Su
Min-Ying
MY
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D005348:Fibrocystic Breast Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008327:Mammography; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016217:Ultrasonography, Mammary
D003287:Contrast Media