Riham Hossam El Din El Khouli1, David
Thomasson1, Katarzyna Macura2, Sarah Mezban2,
wei Liu3, Michael Jacobs2, Richard Edden4,
Peter Barker2, David Bluemke1
1Radiology and Imaging Sciences,
NIH/Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, United States; 2Radiology and
Radiological Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; 3NIH/NCI;
4Cardiff University
Micro-calcifications
(< 1 mm) are a fundamental marker of breast cancer by x-ray mammography,
especially for the early diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).
However with MRI, micro-calcifications are rarely detected using standard
pulse sequences. The purpose of this study was to optimize MRI approaches for
detecting micro-calcifications in the breast in comparison to mammography and
conventional MRI. We achieved high spatial resolution and good visualization
of micro-calcifications using a proton density weighted ultra-short TE MRI
sequence with radial reconstruction.
Ultra-short TE MRI has potential for detection of mammographically
visualized micro-calcifications.