Artifacts in Body Radiology: Breast MRI

Katja Pinker-Domenig¹
¹Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, United States

Synopsis

This presentation will provide an overview of technical as well as patient factors that cause artifacts in clinical breast MRI and explain mitigation strategies. Pitfalls on breast MRI will briefly be discussed. The aim of talk is to facilitate an understanding of the causes of artifacts and their possible solutions and to enable practitioners of breast MRI to meet the challenges of high spatial and resolution breast imaging at high field strengths for best possible patient care.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an established valuable technique in breast imaging with multiple clinical indications, such as preoperative staging, response assessment to neoadjuvant therapy, scar vs. recurrence, assessment of breast implant integrity, evaluation of patients with cancer of unknown primary and screening of high-risk patients [1-4]. Breast MRI is technically demanding, requiring excellent fat saturation, simultaneous high spatial resolution, and rapid performance of postcontrast sequences and additional other functional sequences at high field strengths [5, 6]. Patient and technical factors can lead to breast MRI artifacts, that may degrade image quality and thereby confound image interpretation. Understanding the sources and basic MR physics underlying artifacts is crucial enabling the optimization of the MRI system and sequence protocol performance and the recognition of the trade-offs involved in mitigating artifacts and improving image quality [7-13]. This presentation will provide an overview of technical (field strength, breast coil associated, FOV and anatomic coverage, fat saturation, phase-encoding, RF interference, wrap-around/ghosting), as well as patient factors (positioning, motion, mis-registration, metallic artifacts) that cause artifacts in clinical breast MRI and explain mitigation strategies. In addition, pitfalls on breast MRI will briefly be discussed. The aim of this talk is to facilitate an understanding of the causes of artifacts and their possible solutions and to enable practitioners of breast MRI to meet the challenges of high spatial and resolution breast imaging at high field strengths for best possible patient care.

Acknowledgements

No acknowledgement found.

References

1. Mann, R.M., et al., Breast MRI: EUSOBI recommendations for women's information. Eur Radiol, 2015.

2. Mann, R.M., et al., Breast MRI: guidelines from the European Society of Breast Imaging. Eur Radiol, 2008. 18(7): p. 1307-18.

3. Mann, R.M., N. Cho, and L. Moy, Breast MRI: State of the Art. Radiology, 2019. 292(3): p. 520-536.

4. Morris, E.A., et al., ACR BI-RADS® Magnetic Resonance Imaging, in ACR BI-RADS® Atlas, Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System. . 2013, American College of Radiology: Reston, VA.

5. Baltzer, P., et al., Diffusion-weighted imaging of the breast-a consensus and mission statement from the EUSOBI International Breast Diffusion-Weighted Imaging working group. Eur Radiol, 2020. 30(3): p. 1436-1450.

6. Amornsiripanitch, N., et al., Diffusion-weighted MRI for Unenhanced Breast Cancer Screening.Radiology, 2019. 293(3): p. 504-520.

7. Anthony, M.P., et al., Artifacts in Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Curr Probl Diagn Radiol, 2016. 45(4): p. 271-7.

8. Huang, S.Y., et al., Body MR Imaging: Artifacts, k-Space, and Solutions. Radiographics, 2015. 35(5): p. 1439-60.

9. Harvey, J.A., et al., Breast MR imaging artifacts: how to recognize and fix them. Radiographics, 2007. 27 Suppl 1: p. S131-45.

10. Han, M., et al., Homogenous fat suppression for bilateral breast imaging using independent shims.Magn Reson Med, 2014. 71(4): p. 1511-7.

11. Ojeda-Fournier, H., K.A. Choe, and M.C. Mahoney, Recognizing and interpreting artifacts and pitfalls in MR imaging of the breast. Radiographics, 2007. 27 Suppl 1: p. S147-64.

12. Genson, C.C., et al., Effects on breast MRI of artifacts caused by metallic tissue marker clips. AJR Am J Roentgenol, 2007. 188(2): p. 372-6.

13. Yeh, E.D., et al., Positioning in breast MR imaging to optimize image quality. Radiographics, 2014. 34(1): p. E1-17.

Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 30 (2022)