C A. Azlan1,2, Trevor S. Ahearn1, Gordon D. Waiter1, Scott I. Semple3, Fiona J. Gilbert1, Thomas W. Redpath1
1Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK; 2Department of Biomedical Imaging, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 3Department of Medical Physics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
B1 inhomogeneity is a major drawback of 3T MRI and may affect the accuracy of enhancement ratio (ER) measurement after DCE-MRI of the breast. To simulate the effect of B1 inhomogeneity on DCE-MRI, T1-weighted FLASH images of gel phantoms were acquired using a range of flip angles. We show that there is an underestimation of ER, which increases with ER, as B1 decreases. Clinically 100% enhancement is frequently used as a threshold for malignancy. At this level we show that for a 54% B1 field there is a 20% underestimation of ER. This underestimation could reduce the specificity/sensitivity of DCE-MRI of the breast.