Breast Implant MRI with an Extended 4-Point Ideal Method

Jedrzej Burakiewicz¹, Annette Jones², Sarah McWilliams², Jyoti Parikh², Hema Verma², Tobias Schaeffter¹, Geoffrey David Charles-Edwards¹, ²

Separating silicone signal is an important issue in breast imaging, particularly when ruptures of the implant are suspected. Methods used up to date include either STIR or spectral suppression, or a combination of both. These however are susceptible to B0 inhomogeneities and can reduce signal strength. We present a combination of a 4-point IDEAL method with an optimised initial echo time,and with a region growing algorithm to provide a good initial estimate for the B0 map to efficiently separate water, fat and silicone signals; we also show first clinical results from a breast implant patient.