Diagnostic performance of kinetic parameters of ultrafast breast MRI and their associations with immunohistopathological findings of breast carcinoma.

This study aimed to assess diagnostic values of kinetic parameters in ultrafast dynamic contrast magnetic resonance imaging. The diagnostic performance of ultrafast kinetic parameters (time to enhancement [TTE], maximum slope [MS], time to peak, peak enhancement [PE], and wash-in slope [WIS]), and their correlations with the immunohistopathological findings of breast cancer were evaluated for 101 histologically proven breast lesions. We found that the areas under the curves of five ultrafast kinetic parameters in masses (0.69-0.81) and for MS, PE, and WIS in non-mass enhancement (NME) (0.91-0.94) were comparable to those of Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) categorizations (mass: 0.85, NME: 0.83) without statistically significant differences. Values of ultrafast kinetic parameters differed significantly according to invasiveness (invasive vs. non-invasive: TTE, p = 0.029; MS, p = 0.040; PE, p = 0.032; and WIS, p = 0.009), immunohistopathological findings (high vs. low Ki-67: TTE, p = 0.020; MS, p = 0.004; PE, p = 0.003; and WIS, p < 0.001), hormone receptor (negative vs. positive: MS, p = 0.033; and WIS, p = 0.042), and triple-negative status (triple-negative vs. non-triple-negative: MS, p = 0.028; and WIS, p = 0.011) in breast cancer. In conclusion, ultrafast kinetic parameters demonstrate diagnostic performance comparable to that of BI-RADS categories for both mass and NME and may be associated with the immunohistopathological findings of breast cancer.