Intravoxel incoherent motion MR imaging for breast lesions: comparison and correlation with pharmacokinetic evaluation from dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging

To compare diagnostic performance for breast lesions by quantitative parameters derived from intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to explore whether correlations exist between these parameters. IVIM and DCE MRI were performed on a 1.5-T MRI scanner in patients with suspicious breast lesions. Thirty-six breast cancers and 23 benign lesions were included in the study. Quantitative parameters from IVIM (D, f and D*) and DCE MRI (K-trans, K-ep, V-e and V-p) were calculated and compared between malignant and benign lesions. Spearman correlation test was used to evaluate correlations between them. D, f, D* from IVIM and K-trans, K-ep, V-p from DCE MRI were statistically different between breast cancers and benign lesions (p < 0.05, respectively) and D demonstrated the largest area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC = 0.917) and had the highest specificity (83 %). The f value was moderately statistically correlated with V-p (r = 0.692) and had a poor correlation with K-trans (r = 0.456). IVIM MRI is useful in the differentiation of breast lesions. Significant correlations were found between perfusion-related parameters from IVIM and DCE MRI. IVIM may be a useful adjunctive tool to standard MRI in diagnosing breast cancer. aEuro cent IVIM provided diffusion as well as perfusion information aEuro cent IVIM could help differential diagnosis of breast lesions aEuro cent Correlations were found between perfusion-related parameters from IVIM and DCE MRI.