title: Breast MRI contrast enhancement kinetics of normal parenchyma correlate with presence of breast cancer.
abstract: We investigated dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) contrast enhancement kinetic variables quantified from normal breast parenchyma for association with presence of breast cancer, in a case-control study.
  
  
  
  Under a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliant and Institutional Review Board-approved protocol, DCE-MRI scans of the contralateral breasts of 51 patients with cancer and 51 controls (matched by age and year of MRI) with biopsy-proven benign lesions were retrospectively analyzed. Applying fully automated computer algorithms on pre-contrast and multiple post-contrast MR sequences, two contrast enhancement kinetic variables, wash-in slope and signal enhancement ratio, were quantified from normal parenchyma of the contralateral breasts of both patients with cancer and controls. Conditional logistic regression was employed to assess association between these two measures and presence of breast cancer, with adjustment for other imaging factors including mammographic breast density and MRI background parenchymal enhancement (BPE). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to assess the ability of the kinetic measures to distinguish patients with cancer from controls.
  
  
  
  When both kinetic measures were included in conditional logistic regression analysis, the odds ratio for breast cancer was 1.7 (95 % CI 1.1, 2.8; p = 0.017) for wash-in slope variance and 3.5 (95 % CI 1.2, 9.9; p = 0.019) for signal enhancement ratio volume, respectively. These odds ratios were similar on respective univariate analysis, and remained significant after adjustment for menopausal status, family history, and mammographic density. While percent BPE was associated with an odds ratio of 3.1 (95 % CI 1.2, 7.9; p = 0.018), in multivariable analysis of the three measures, percent BPE was non-significant (p = 0.897) and the two kinetics measures remained significant. For the differentiation of patients with cancer and controls, the unadjusted AUC was 0.71 using a combination of the two measures, which significantly (p = 0.005) outperformed either measure alone (AUC = 0.65 for wash-in slope variance and 0.63 for signal enhancement ratio volume).
  
  
  
  Kinetic measures of wash-in slope and signal enhancement ratio quantified from normal parenchyma in DCE-MRI are jointly associated with presence of breast cancer, even after adjustment for mammographic density and BPE.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA. wus3@upmc.edu.|, 3362 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA. wus3@upmc.edu.
authors.forename: Shandong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA.|Magee-Womens Hospital of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 300 Halket St, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
authors.forename: Wendie A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Berg
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA.|Magee-Womens Hospital of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 300 Halket St, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
authors.forename: Margarita L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Zuley
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Department of Biostatistics, University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA.
authors.forename: Brenda F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Kurland
authors.affiliation: Magee-Womens Hospital of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 300 Halket St, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.|Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA.
authors.forename: Rachel C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Jankowitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nishikawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gur
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA.|Magee-Womens Hospital of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 300 Halket St, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
authors.forename: Jules H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Sumkin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019540:Area Under Curve; D000071060:Breast Density; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media
keywords: Breast MRI; Breast cancer; Contrast enhancement kinetics; Normal parenchyma; Quantitative analysis; Signal enhancement ratio; Wash-in slope