MULTI-READER-ANALYSIS TO ASSESS FUNCTIONA L MR-MAMMOGRAPHY

The diagnostic impact and reproducibility of the different methods use d within the concept of functional MR-Mammography (FMRM) was assessed by a multi-reader-analysis. By four experienced readers, 100 histologi cally confirmed cases were evaluated in six different sessions. Per se ssion, one of the following components was analyzed: clinical history (I), static MRM (II), color-coded projection images (III), time-signal curves of contrast enhancement within a large ROI (IV) and the strong est enhancing pixel (V) obtained from the histologically confirmed les ion and the complete FMRM reading (VI). The functional methods (IV-VI) revealed significantly (p < 0.05) higher specificities than the other s (I-III). The highest reproducibility between the readers was observe d for (IV) phi kappa = 0.80, (V) phi kappa = 0.76 and FMRM (VI) phi ka ppa = 0.63. These three methods also presented the best ROC-curves and showed the highest complementarity with respect to the false positive classifications in x-ray mammography. FMRM is a reader independent, r eproducible method. The analysis of the contrast enhancement time-inte nsity curves with high temporal resolution allows an improved differen tiation of malignant and benign findings.