Quantification of Absolute Concentration of Choline for Differentiation of Malignant, Benign and Normal Breast Tissues by In-Vivo Proton MR Spectroscopy.

Rani Gupta Sah¹, Uma Sharma¹, Rajinder Parshad², Naranamangalam R. Jagannathan¹

Absolute concentration of tCho was determined in breast tissue of 87 women including 52 patients with infiltrating ductal carcinoma, 15 benign and 20 normal volunteers using in-vivo proton MRS at 1.5 T. tCho signal was observed in all malignant and in 13/15 benign lesions and 8/20 normal volunteers. Concentration of tCho was 4.04 2.08 mmol/kg in malignant tumor which was significantly higher compared to benign (1.37 0.8 mmol/kg) and normal tissues (0.40 0.24 mmol/kg) suggesting that quantitative measurements provide unambiguous diagnosis of breast lesions. No significant difference was observed in tCho concentration between volunteers and benign lesions.