Quantitative optimization of dynamic contrast-enhanced breast MRIh
Melanie Freed. Assistant professor. Departamento de física. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Fecha: 16, Mayo 2012
Abstract: The current clinical standard for breast cancer screening is mammography. However, this technique has a low sensitivity which results in missed cancers. Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) has recently emerged as a promising technique for breast cancer diagnosis and has been reported as being superior to mammography for screening of high-risk women and evaluation of extent of disease. At the same time, low and variable specificity has been documented in the literature as well as a rising number of mastectomies possibly due to the increasing use of DCE-MRI. I will discuss methods we have developed for the quantitative assessment of breast DCE-MRI procotols, including a theoretical framework for optimizations in simulation and a dual-modality, x-ray and DCE-MRI, anthropomorphic physical phantom. The theoretical framework uses an ideal observer to estimate area under the ROC curve (AUC) for the discrimination of benign and malignant lesions. Optimizations using this method have demonstrated the potential for an increase in AUC of up to 0.20 by varying the repetition time and flip angle of the DCE-MRI protocol. The physical phantom has been developed to mimic key x-ray and DCE-MRI properties of breast tissue. Comparisons with patient data show that these properties are consistent with breast tissue. This phantom can be used for experimental validation of theoretical protocol evaluations.
Lugar: Sala de seminario física experimental