[Multiple reader analysis for evaluation of functional MR mammography].

The diagnostic impact and reproducibility of the different methods used within the concept of functional MR-Mammography (FMRM) was assessed by a multi-reader-analysis. By four experienced readers, 100 histologically confirmed cases were evaluated in six different sessions. Per session, one of the following components was analyzed: clinical history (I), static MRM (II), color-coded projection images (III), time-signal curves of contrast enhancement within a large ROI (IV) and the strongest enhancing pixel (V) obtained from the histologically confirmed lesion and the complete FMRM reading (VI). The functional methods (IV-VI) revealed significantly (p < 0.05) higher specificities than the others (I-III). The highest reproducibility between the readers was observed for (IV) phi chi = 0.80, (V) phi chi = 0.76 and FMRM (VI) phi chi = 0.63. These three methods also presented the best ROC-curves and showed the highest complementarity with respect to the false positive classifications in x-ray mammography. FMRM is a reader independent, reproducible method. The analysis of the contrast enhancement time-intensity curves with high temporal resolution allows an improved differentiation of malignant and benign findings.