Siwa Chan1, Jeon-Hor
Chen2,3, Jia-Pei Wu3, Fu-Ju Lei3, Muqing Lin2,
Orhan Nalcioglu2, Min-Ying L. Su2
1Department of Radiology,
Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 2Center for
Functional Onco-Imaging & Department of Radiological Science, University
of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA; 3Department of Radiology, China Medical University
Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
The fluctuation of breast density measurements was investigated by comparing the breast volume, fibroglandular tissue volume and the percent density measured from 4 MRIs performed weekly during a menstrual cycle. Thirty subjects, 25 pre-menopausal and 5 post-menopausal, were studied. The coefficient of variation for each parameter over the 4 MRIs was calculated to assess the measurement fluctuation. Overall, the mean CV was in the range of 4% to 8%, which was approximately twice that of operator uncertainly. As expected, a high fluctuation of > 10% was seen in 5 pre-menopausal women, but in none of the post-menopausal women.