Clinical Imaging
Volume 34, Issue 1 , Pages 14-19, January 2010

Diagnosis of breast cancer with multidetector computed tomography: analysis of optimal delay time after contrast media injection☆

  • Seiko Kuroki-Suzuki

      Affiliations

    • Research Center for Cancer Prevention and Screening, National Cancer Center, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Research Center for Cancer Prevention and Screening, National Cancer Center, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan. Tel:. +81 3 3542 2511; fax +81 3 3542 3815.
    • ,
  • Yoshifumi Kuroki

      Affiliations

    • Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Tochigi Cancer Center, Tochigi, Japan
    • ,
  • Tsutomu Ishikawa

      Affiliations

    • Department of Radiology, Dokkyo Medical University, Tochigi, Japan
    • ,
  • Hideya Takeo

      Affiliations

    • Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Kanagawa, Japan
    • ,
  • Noriyuki Moriyama

      Affiliations

    • Research Center for Cancer Prevention and Screening, National Cancer Center, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan

Received 1 January 2009; accepted 19 February 2009. published online 20 May 2009.

Abstract 

Purpose

The aim of this study was to investigate the optimal delay time after a contrast media injection for multidetector computed tomography (MD-CT) images in the diagnosis of breast cancer patients.

Materials and Methods

Thirty-one patients who underwent MD-CT for their preoperative examination and who had postoperatively confirmed pathology were enrolled. Four-phase images of dynamic contrast enhanced study were acquired using four-detector MDCT. All cases were mammographically classified into two groups according to BI-RADS: nondense and dense groups. The CT value of the background mammary gland, background breast enhancement (BBE), and tumor-background mammary gland contrast (TBC) were compared between the two groups.

Results

The CT value of the dense group was significantly higher than that of the nondense group in all phases. BBE in both nondense and dense groups showed no significant differences in any of the phases. In the nondense group, TBC was significantly higher in both the second and the third phases than in the first phase, while in the dense group, TBC was significantly higher in the second phase than in the first and third phases.

Conclusion

The optimal delay time to depict breast cancer is 80 s after a contrast media injection, regardless of the density level of the background mammary gland.

Keywords: Breast cancer, Computed tomography, Multidetector CT (MD-CT), Contrast enhancement

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☆ This work was supported in part by the Health and Labour Sciences Research Grants for Third Term Comprehensive Control Research for Cancer.

PII: S0899-7071(09)00057-6

doi:10.1016/j.clinimag.2009.03.004

Clinical Imaging
Volume 34, Issue 1 , Pages 14-19, January 2010

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