Premium
Menstrual cycle variation of apparent diffusion coefficients measured in the normal breast using MRI
Author(s) -
Partridge Savannah C.,
McKin Graeme C.,
Henry Roland G.,
Hylton Nola M.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.1204
Subject(s) - effective diffusion coefficient , menstrual cycle , medicine , nuclear medicine , coefficient of variation , breast mri , radiology , breast cancer , magnetic resonance imaging , mammography , chemistry , hormone , cancer , chromatography
Recent investigations have shown that tumors may be distinguished from benign lesions in the breast based on differences in apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values. The goal of this study was to assess the magnitude of normal variations in the measured ADC of breast parenchyma during the menstrual cycle. Eight healthy female subjects were scanned once a week for 4 weeks, using a diffusion‐weighted single‐shot fast spin‐echo (DW‐SSFSE) sequence. The ADC of breast fibroglandular tissue was calculated for each woman at each time point. Results showed a trend of decreased ADC during the second week of the cycle, and increased ADC during the final week. However, no significant influence of menstrual cycle on breast ADC values was identified. The results of this study show that the normal fluctuation of breast ADC is relatively small, and the coefficient of variation was determined to be 5.5% for our group of volunteers during a menstrual cycle. Nonetheless, breast diffusion measurements for tumor differentiation and evaluation of treatment response should be interpreted with consideration of normal variability. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2001;14:433–438. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.