title: Effect of background parenchymal enhancement on breast cancer detection with magnetic resonance imaging.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) may influence the sensitivity of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance (DCE-MR) imaging in breast cancer detection.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 180 consecutive women with 194 breast cancers underwent MR imaging examination. Women were assigned to two different groups depending on the degree of BPE. Group 1 consisted of women with minimal or mild BPE and group 2 of women with moderate or marked BPE. The distributions of histotypes of tumors within the two groups were compared using the χ(2) test. Difference in sensitivities of DCE-MR imaging for tumor detection between the two groups was searched for using the Student t-test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No differences in terms of distributions of histotypes of tumors between the two groups of women were found (P=0.5). The 11% difference in sensitivity of DCE-MR imaging for tumor detection between group 1 (91/92; 99%; 95% CI: 94-100%) and group 2 (90/102; 88%; 95% CI: 80-94%) was statistically significant (P=0.0058).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The sensitivity of DCE-MR imaging is significantly lower in women with moderate and marked BPE as compared with women with minimal and mild BPE regardless of cancer histotype. BPE could represent a limitation for breast MR imaging interpretation and should be indicated in MR imaging reports.
authors.affiliation: DIM, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Section of Diagnostic Imaging, University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Telegrafo
authors.affiliation: DIM, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Section of Diagnostic Imaging, University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rella
authors.affiliation: DIM, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Section of Diagnostic Imaging, University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Stabile Ianora
authors.affiliation: DIM, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Section of Diagnostic Imaging, University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Angelelli
authors.affiliation: DIM, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Section of Diagnostic Imaging, University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy. Electronic address: marco.moschetta@gmail.com.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moschetta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D000072356:Parenchymal Tissue / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: Breast; Breast cancer; Breast parenchymal enhancement; MRI