page_title: Breast imaging
section_title: MRI
hierarchical_section_title: Breast imaging / MRI
caption_attribution_description: English: Title MRI of Breast Description Color-enhancement show magnetic resonance image (MRI) of individual breast. Topics/Categories Anatomy -- Breast Test or Procedure -- Imaging Procedures Type Color, Photo Source Dr. Steven Harmes. Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas Texas
context_page_description: In medicine, breast imaging is a sub-speciality of diagnostic radiology that involves imaging of the breasts for screening or diagnostic purposes. There are various methods of breast imaging using a variety of technologies as described in detail below. Traditional screening and diagnostic mammography uses x-ray technology. Breast tomosynthesis is a new digital mammography technique that produces 3D images of the breast using x-rays. Xeromammography and Galactography also use x-ray technology and are also used infrequently in the detection of breast cancer. Breast ultrasound is another technology employed in diagnosis & screening and specifically can help differentiate between fluid filled and solid lumps that can help determine if cancerous. Breast MRI is, yet, another technology reserved for high-risk patients and can help determine the extent of cancer if diagnosed. Lastly, scintimammography is used in a subgroup of patients who have abnormal mammograms or whose screening is not reliable on the basis of using traditional mammography or ultrasound.
context_section_description: Breast MRI, an alternative to mammography, has shown substantial progress in the detection of breast cancer. The available literature suggests that the sensitivity of contrast-enhanced breast MRI in detection of cancer is considerably higher than that of either radiographic mammography or ultrasound and is generally reported to be in excess of 94%. The specificity (the confidence that a lesion is cancerous and not a false positive) is only fair ('modest'), (or 37%-97%) thus a positive finding by MRI should not be interpreted as a definitive diagnosis. The reports of 4,271 breast MRIs from eight large scale clinical trials were reviewed in 2006.
  Currently, American and European guidelines both recommend MRI screening as the optimum imaging modality but differences exist in regards to screening for certain patient subgroups. MRI has shown specific utility in women with extremely dense breast tissue. By using supplemental MRI in these women who had otherwise normal mammography results, there was a diagnosis of significantly fewer interval cancers than when using mammography alone during a two-year period.
  One of the other advantages of MRI screening is in cancer treatment. Specifically, MRI shows increased detection of small cancers which have less associated lymph node involvement and consequently decreased frequency of interval cancers which affect survival and mortality.  Additionally, MRI Is also shown to be more accurate than mammography, ultrasound, or clinical exam in evaluating treatment response to neo-adjuvant therapy
caption: A color-enhanced MRI of a breast
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