Consistency of breast density measured from the same women in four different MR scanners.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the breast volume (BV), fibroglandular tissue volume (FV), and percent density (PD) measured from breast MRI of the same women using four different MR scanners.


METHODS
The study was performed in 34 healthy Asian volunteers using two 1.5T (GE and Siemens) and two 3T (GE and Philips) MR scanners. The BV, FV, and PD were measured on nonfat-suppressed T1-weighted images using a comprehensive computer algorithm-based segmentation method. The scanner-to-scanner measurement difference, and the coefficient of variation (CV) among the four scanners were calculated. The measurement variation between two density morphological patterns presenting as the central type and the intermingled type was separately analyzed and compared.


RESULTS
All four scanners provided satisfactory image quality allowing for successful completion of the segmentation processes. The measured parameters between each pair of MR scanners were highly correlated, with R(2) ≥ 0.95 for BV, R(2) ≥ 0.99 for FV, and R(2) ≥ 0.97 for PD in all comparisons. The mean percent differences between each pair of scanners were 5.9%-7.8% for BV, 5.3%-6.5% for FV, 4.3%-7.3% for PD; with the overall CV of 5.8% for BV, 4.8% for FV, and 4.9% for PD. The variation of FV was smaller in the central type than in the intermingled type (p = 0.04).


CONCLUSIONS
The results showed that the variation of FV and PD measured from four different MR scanners is around 5%, suggesting the parameters measured using different scanners can be used for a combined analysis in a multicenter study.
Tu and Yuen Center for Functional Onco-Imaging of Department of Radiological Science, University of California Irvine, California 92697-5020, USA. jeonhc@uci.edu
Jeon-Hor
JH
Chen
Siwa
S
Chan
Yi-Jui
YJ
Liu
Dah-Cherng
DC
Yeh
Chih-Kai
CK
Chang
Li-Kuang
LK
Chen
Wei-Fan
WF
Pan
Chih-Chen
CC
Kuo
Muqing
M
Lin
Daniel H E
DH
Chang
Peter T
PT
Fwu
Min-Ying
MY
Su
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D044466:Asian People; D001940:Breast / Q000473:pathology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D015203:Reproducibility of Results