The efficacy of abbreviated breast MRI protocols using 1.5 T MRI in the preoperative staging of newly diagnosed breast cancers

Purpose: To determine the efficacy of abbreviated breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols using 1.5 T MRI in the preoperative staging of newly diagnosed breast cancers.Methods: Eighty patients who underwent 1.5 T MRI between August 2014 and January 2018 for the preoperative staging of breast cancer were evaluated retrospectively. Three separate abbreviated breast MRI protocols (AP) were created from a full protocol, and the images were evaluated independently by two radiologists. AP1 included axial fat-saturated T2 weighted and diffusion-weighted (DW) images, while subtracted axial fat -saturated T1 weighted images were obtained 2 min after contrast administration in AP2. Finally, AP2 and DW images were evaluated in AP3. Lesion location, number, and size, and presence of axillary lymphadenopathy were evaluated in each protocol. Pathological data (lesion quadrant, lesion size, and presence of axillary me-tastases) from the 80 patients were compared with the abbreviated protocols and full diagnostic protocol.Results: The best correlation with the full protocol for detecting the lesion quadrant, number of lesions, and presence of axillary lymphadenopathy was achieved with AP3 for both readers (lc = 0.954, 0.954 for the lesion quadrant, lc = 0.971, 0.910 for the number of lesions, and lc = 0.973, 0.865 for the axillary lymphadenopathy). The evaluation time in all abbreviated protocols was shorter than for the full protocol (p < 0.05). Comparing the abbreviated protocols with pathological data for both readers, the best correlation for detecting the lesion quadrant, number of lesions, and presence of axillary lymphadenopathy was achieved with AP3 (lc = 0.939, 0.954 for the lesion quadrant, lc = 0.941, 0.879 for the number of lesions, and lc = 0.842, 0.740 for axillary lymphadenopathy, respectively).Conclusion: Abbreviated breast MRI protocols can provide sufficient diagnostic accuracy in the preoperative staging of breast cancer, with shorter imaging and evaluation times.