Quantitative perfusion parameters of benign inflammatory breast pathologies: A descriptive study

Abstract

Purpose: With this study, we evaluated the perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of benign inflammatory breast lesions for the first time and compared their Ktrans, Kep, Ve values and contrast kinetic curves to benign masses and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Materials and methods: Perfusion MRIs of the benign masses (n = 42), inflammatory lesions (n = 25), and IDCs (n = 16) were evaluated retrospectively in terms of Ktrans, Kep, Ve values and contrast kinetic curves and compared by the Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U, chi-square tests statistically. Cronbach α test was used to measure intraobserver and interobserver reliability. Results: Mean Ktrans values were 0.052 for benign masses, 0.086 for inflammatory lesions and 0.101 for IDC (p < 0.001). Mean Kep values were 0.241 for benign masses, 0.435 for inflammatory lesions and 0.530 for IDC (p < 0.001). Mean Ve values were 0.476 for benign masses, 0.318 for inflammatory lesions and 0.310 for IDC (p = 0.067). For inflammatory and IDC lesions, Ktrans and Kep values were found to be higher and Ve values were lower than benign masses (p = 0.001 for Ktrans, p = 0.001 for Kep, p = 0.045 for Ve). There were excellent or good intra-interobserver reliabilities. For the kinetic curve pattern, most of the benign lesions showed progressive (81%), inflammatory lesions progressive (64%) and IDC lesions plateau (75%) patterns (p < 0.001). Conclusions: On T1 perfusion MRI, similar to IDC lesions, inflammatory lesions demonstrate higher Ktrans and Kep and lower Ve values than benign masses. Quantitative perfusion parameters are not helpful in differentiating them from IDC lesions.