Effect of background parenchymal enhancement on breast cancer detection with magnetic resonance imaging

ObjectiveTo investigate whether background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) may influence the sensitivity of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance (DCE-MR) imaging in breast cancer detection.Materials and methodsA 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 χ2 test. Difference in sensitivities of DCE-MR imaging for tumor detection between the two groups was searched for using the Student t-test.ResultsNo 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).ConclusionThe 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.