Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the manifestations of malign/benign lesions and complicated cyst/abscesses in diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging and to investigate the contribution of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) to differential diagnosis.

METHODS

In this retrospective study 177 lesions of which 21 were complicated cystic, 91 were malignant and 65 were benign were evaluated in 116 female patients using conventional MRI and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI).

RESULTS

The mean ADC values obtained in our study were 0.88±0.3x10-3 cm2/sec for 91 malign lesions, 1.52±0.3x10-3 cm2/sec for 65 benign lesions, 0.55±0.3x10-3 cm2/sec for 21 complicated cysts/abscesses and and a statistically significant difference was identified when the mean lesion ADC values were compared (P<0.001). We calculated a cut-off ADC value to distinguish malign and benign lesions from complicated cysts/abscesses is 0.6x10-3cm2/sec (P<0,001) and a cut-off value to distinguish malignant lesions from benign lesions is 1.1x10-3cm2/sec (P<0,001). The ADC values identified for complicated cysts/abscesses are significantly lower than the ADC values of benign and malign values identified in literature.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

As a result, the specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of DWI when it is used alone are higher than conventional MRI, and sensitivity are nearly same. DWI is effective in detecting breast lesions and also using ADC value is useful