Determining the Sensitivity and Specificity of High Spatial Resolution 3.0T Breast MRI in a High Risk Familial Breast Cancer Screening Cohort

Martin D. Pickles¹, Lindsay W. Turnbull¹

Theoretically breast MR examinations at 3.0T should be superior to 1.5T studies. However, breast imaging on higher field strength systems also pose problems such as larger chemical shift, susceptibility artefacts, B1 inhomogeneities and increased T1 relaxation times. The aim of this work was to compare the sensitivity and specificity achieved by a 3.0T MR breast screening programme against the published results of screening studies at 1.5T. In conclusion the diagnostic accuracy of MR breast screening at 3.0T does not seem to be adversely effected by high field strength related artefacts and the results are comparable to those published at 1.5T.