Breast MRI improves PPV for BI-RADS category 4B lesions

Breast MRI improves the positive predictive value (PPV) of BI-RADS category 4B (moderate suspicion of malignancy) for mammographic microcalcifications, according to a study published online May 28 in Clinical Radiology.

Researchers from Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, conducted a study that included 108 women with BI-RADS category 4B microcalcifications without masses on mammography who underwent breast MRI between January 2009 and December 2015. The team reviewed mammography and MRI findings and analyzed imaging features according to the BI-RADS 5th edition.

With breast MRI, the PPV of category 4B microcalcifications increased from 0.38 to 0.82, and MRI reduced benign biopsy results by 88%, the researchers found.

"If amorphous microcalcification with regional or grouped distribution on mammography shows no enhancement on MRI, follow-up could be considered rather than immediate biopsy," the group concluded. "In addition, breast MRI might have the potential to guide the best site to biopsy in category 4B microcalcification."

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